"It's not that surprising when you consider you can see yourself as another person in the future," co-author Christian Ruff told Live Science, meaning that people who exercise self control are better at imagining their future selves, and are able to tailor their responses to situations.
For the study, researchers offered participants between $75 and $155, which they could keep, or $150 that they could split with loved ones or strangers.
“Researchers observed most people were willing to share with their nearest and dearest, but not so much with strangers. But when scientists zapped the pTPJ, effectively silencing it, and offered participants a small, variable sum now or a bigger, known payout in three to 18 months, they observed more stinginess with others and little patience with waiting,” Newser explained.
"The main implication of our finding is we shouldn't just focus on interventions that control our impulses, but we should perhaps think about interventions that actually foster our ability to take the perspective of others," Ruff said.
Ruff explained to Live Science that most current treatment models for addiction focus on helping people control their impulses, but he believes an important aspect may also be to make sure that a person is not socially isolated.
"If we were trying to really speculate wildly, you could say perhaps there is a bit of a vicious circle," Ruff said. "Once you actually start becoming addicted, you do focus a lot more on your own impulses and feelings and disengage from the social world. This disengagement from having the focus and perspective of others makes it harder to control yourself."
