You’re So Self-Controlling - NYTimes.com
This is an extremely interesting article. Apparently, whether you are willing to forgo an immediate reward for greater future gain depends on how you perceive the real expectation of that future gain.
So if I'm thinking about trying to lose weight, and I'm offered a tempting high-fat meal, I'm not just thinking "that high-fat meal will cause me to gain weight, and I won't get the reward of losing weight." I'm also taking into account the probability that I really will lose the weight anyway.
The other thing I find interesting, though (and this is completely speculation on my part) is that I suspect that some people will read the article and say "That's an interesting insight into how the brain works," and others will engage in some kind of moralizing on the virtue of austerity or some such thing. The second group of people are more interested in scolding reality into fitting their expectations (And how's that working for you?) and the first group is more interested in seeing how the world works.
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