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Psychology: Why does guilt increase pleasure?

Feelings of guilt can make our temptations feel even more
seductive. So could we be healthier and happier if we just
embraced a little bit of vice, asks David Robson.

This year, my New Years Resolutions are going to take a somewhat different form to those of
previous Januaries. Im forgoing my usual goals to drink less, eat more fruit and to hit the gym rather
than bingeing on trash TV. Instead, there is only one thing I plan to give up in 2015: my guilt for
things that give me pleasure.
Im not just being contrary; Im taking a cue from experts. We may have more than enough worries
that are out of our control, anyway, without feeling bad about the things we should enjoy. But whats
more, psychologists have found that those guilty feelings about our diet or lifestyle dont appear to
help us live a healthier life. Rather than leading us away from temptation, guilt often drives us
straight to our vices.
This irony may arise for many possible reasons. One idea is that guilty forms of pleasure have been so
engrained in our psyche that feelings of sin and remorse actually trigger thoughts of desire in the
brain. In other words, our vices are so tempting partly because we know they are bad for us.

Feeling guilty about your bad habits may, ironically, prevent you
from summoning the willpower to hit the gym (Thinkstock)

To show that our subconscious really does work in this masochistic way, Kelly Goldsmith at
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, gave volunteers some word games. They were first
asked to unscramble some sentences, some of which contained words like sin or guilt or
remorse, while the others contained more neutral terms.
For the second part of the experiment, they were then shown fragments like E N _ _ _ or P L _ _ _
_ _ _ and asked to complete the word. Those who had previously unscrambled the sentences about
wrong-doing were subsequently far more likely to fill in the gaps with words associated with desire
such as enjoy or pleasure compared to other obvious possibilities, such as enter or
pleading. In other words, rather than deflecting thoughts away from sin, the guilty subconscious
started to think more lustfully.
Importantly, Goldsmith found those feelings translated to real sensual experiences. People primed
with guilt said they enjoyed eating sweets in the lab more than others, for instance. The same was
true even if Goldsmith subtly reminded them of the consequences on their health; looking at fitness
magazines both increased their guilt, and their enjoyment, of the sweets. Nor was it limited to
confectionary; the guilty words also made the volunteers take greater pleasure in looking at sexy
pictures on an online dating website.

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The what-the-hell effect
But the ironic twists of guilt dont stop there. Besides enhancing your attraction to temptation, the
feeling may also set off the so-called what-the-hell effect. This well-studied psychological
phenomenon is thereason that you cant stop at one slice of pie you think that if youve failed
once, you might as well give in completely.
When Roeline Kuijer and Jessica Boyce at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, recently
looked at eating habits, for instance, they found that participants who naturally associated chocolate
cake with guilt hadlower belief in their self-control than people who associated it with more positive
feelings, like celebration. Over the next three months, that then became a self-fulfilling prophecy;
although their intentions were exactly the same, the people who felt guiltier when thinking about
chocolate were less successful at losing weight, compared to the people who viewed the chocolate
with excitement rather than despair. The same was also true of another group who were trying to
maintain a healthy weight; over 18 months, those who innocently enjoyed their food were also the
least likely to pile on the pounds.

Health campaigns can backfire in surprising ways (Getty Images)

Goldsmith is keen to emphasise that these findings cant explain away all our personal failings. She
suspects we would feel very different if you are hurting someone else in the process, for instance if
you were to skip visiting your grandmother to go somewhere like a concert, say. Maybe there are
more bad feelings associated with that kind of guilt compared to the guilt when we let ourselves
down.
But the discoveries may highlight a problem with some public health campaigns. If you take an
activity that didnt used to be associated with guilt, and all of a sudden make it feel naughty, it
enhances the pleasure, says Goldsmith. Along these lines, one study found that a no smoking sign
seemed to increase smokers cravings. And as Kuijer and Boyce point out in their article, it is perhaps
not a coincidence that the United States has higher levels of obesity than France, despite the fact
that people individually feel guiltier about the food they eat than the French do. Although no one has
yet tested ways to alter campaigns along these lines, Goldsmith wonders if it might be more effective
to focus on the positive - emphasising the benefits of making a healthier choice rather than
overloading the public with facts about the dangers of the "forbidden" vice.
Low-brow attitude
The same issues may also hamper our own resolutions which is why I have decided to be less
puritanical this year. Thats not to say that I will deliberately take up more vices, but just that I will try
to enjoy the pleasures for what they are, rather than feeling too anxious about the long-term effects.
After all, deliberately indulging yourself every now and then could be essential for maintaining your
willpower with larger goals. Whenever we have to use self-control, to resist a temptation or to
continue an unpleasant task, the strength of this muscle is depleted, explains Leonard Reinecke at
the University of Mainz in Germany. As a consequence, it is harder for us to resist desires in
subsequent situations."

Could a guilt-free evening with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

be the best way to restore your willpower and self-control?
(Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

Consider my reality TV binges during which I spend a whole evening compulsively devouring
episode after episodes of Shedding for the Wedding, Jersey Shore and Keeping Up With The
Kardashians, even if it leaves me feeling slightly nauseous with self-disgust. Reinecke has found that
low-brow entertainment is a great way to rest what he calls that willpower muscle and recharge
your self-control. But there is a catch: people who felt guilty at succumbing to the entertainment
were the least likely to gain any benefit. Even more ironically, it was often the people with the most
depleted self-control who felt the guiltiest.
In other words, forgiving a bit of down-time, or the odd treat, should mean that I can recover a
healthier outlook more quickly and I should then be able to muster up the willpower to go to the
gym the next day. That kind of attitude is often not emphasised enough, says Goldsmith.
"One thing I think might be ignored in the literature is that its OK to indulge and its nice to feel
pleasure from indulgence, she says. If you are eating the right thing most of the time, you dont
have to worry about the ice cream that makes you feel guilty. Enjoy that pleasure its fine."
And that is exactly what I plan to do.