Abstract
Prior research has shown that routines and beneficial habits largely explain high self-control people's success at goal pursuit. However, COVID-19 self-quarantine measures and country-level lockdowns have largely challenged people's ability to stick to their daily routines and habits. How successful at goal pursuit are people with high self-control when the world around them is not as it used to be? We examined if self-control passes the ‘quarantine test’. In an online study (N = 271), we measured trait self-control, goal progress, continued engagement in pre-pandemic goal-directed behaviors, development of new goal-directed behaviors and turning these new behaviors into habits. Results showed that during lockdown, people with higher (vs. lower) trait self-control were not only more likely to continue engaging in pre-pandemic goal-directed behaviors, but also found it easier to develop new goal-directed behaviors and were more likely to turn these behaviors into habits. High self-control people's ability to continue performing pre-pandemic goal-directed behaviors and to turn new behaviors into habits explained their success at goal attainment despite the major disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Highlights
Quarantine measures implemented to fight the COVID-19 pandemic have radically changed the lives of millions of people worldwide
We asked whether trait self-control passes the ‘quarantine test’: Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural laboratory to study goal pursuit under exceptionally disruptive circumstances, we examined whether trait self-control is associated with more goal progress
We examined whether this perception of flexibility reported by high self-control people is reflected in their ability to continue performing goal-directed behaviors developed before the pandemic and/or develop new behaviors to pursue their goals despite the pandemic-caused disruptions
Summary
Quarantine measures implemented to fight the COVID-19 pandemic have radically changed the lives of millions of people worldwide. Prior research on self-control has shown that one of the reasons why people with higher (vs lower) self-control are more successful at goal attainment is because they use adaptive behavioral strategies, such as turning goal-directed behaviors into habits (Adriaanse, Kroese, Gillebaart, & De Ridder, 2014; De Ridder & Gillebaart, 2017; Ent, Baumeister, & Tice, 2015; Galla & Duckworth, 2015; Stavrova, Pronk, & Kokkoris, 2020; Stavrova, Pronk, & Kokkoris, 2019). We used the COVID-19 pandemic as a context to examine whether people with higher (vs lower) self-control made more progress towards their goals, and whether they did so by continuing performing their pre-existing goal-directed behaviors and/or by being more flexible and able to develop new behaviors and turn them into habits
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