Evidence for conflict resolving qualities of self-licensing: an experience sampling study

Abstract

Background: Self-licensing occurs when people rely on justifications to allow themselves to give in to food temptations. In the self-licensing literature it is generally assumed that this justification process resolves the motivational conflict between ‘want’ (indulge in forbidden foods) and ‘should’ (weight control) goals. However, there is only indirect empirical evidence for this assumption, as it is mainly inferred from behavioral outcomes. Therefore the present experience sampling study aimed to provide more direct evidence. Methods: A female community sample (N = 136) received prompts on their smartphones eight times per day over the course of one week. Following Hofmann et al.’s (2012) conceptual model of motivated behavior, participants registered experienced temptations, desire strength, experienced conflict, resistance and desire enactment. In addition, potential justifications were registered. Findings: The results of multilevel analyses showed that the significant association between desire strength and experienced conflict (β = .23) was moderated by the number of available justifications (β = -.050). Further significant associations were found between conflict and resistance (β = .14), desire strength and resistance (β = -.036), resistance and desire enactment (β = -.78), and desire strength and desire enactment (β = .84). Discussion: The present findings support the assumption that self-licensing liberates people to indulge by resolving experienced conflict. Intervention aimed at improving healthy eating behaviors could benefit from tapping into this process. Furthermore, the obtained associations replicate the model of motivated behavior. Whether conflict resolution is the underlying mechanism of self-licensing needs further corroboration in future studies.