The Benefits of Behaving Badly on Occasion

Researchers found that aging graduates were more likely to lament having had too much self-control than too little at this key moment in their youth. People with low self-control are often said to have a kind of psychological myopia, but Kivitz and Keenan propose many suffer the opposite problem. Recent research shows intermittently giving into our desires can often be better for our well-being without putting us on a slippery slope to failure. The trick, it seems, is to plan the indulgences in advance.