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behavior
A minor lapse leads you to abandon all progress.
The what-the-hell effect explains why one small deviation from a goal often results in a total collapse of self-control.
Once you feel you have 'broken' your restriction, the psychological distress makes you stop caring about further consequences. You treat the initial failure as a signal that the goal is already lost.
The harm is rarely in the single mistake, but in your reaction to it.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Janet Polivy and C. Peter Herman
- What the check found
- The term is widely attributed to Polivy and Herman's work on disinhibition in restrained eaters, though the provided text did not contain this information.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.