Have you ever had the feeling that your ambitious goals are unattainable, overshadowed by the conflict between immediate desires and long-term aspirations? This inner conflict is a major challenge. How can this gap be bridged? Self-control means stimulating and executing behaviors or reactions that are goal-oriented, but suppressing or inhibiting those that make it difficult to achieve goals. Effective self-control involves being mindful of consequences, resisting immediate rewards, controlling disruptive behaviors and sticking to our goals. However, despite significant progress in understanding self-control, critical gaps remain. Questions such as: How general is self-control? How can we improve it and what specific mechanisms drive the improvement of self-control? We are trying to answer these questions using various scientific methods such as computational experiments or fMRI. In one of our projects, we are looking at the ability of humans to learn from role models. We are investigating whether learning from role models triggers similar brain activity in participants, which can lead to a change in behavior that results in improved self-control. Understanding the underlying mechanisms involved in observational learning allows for a deeper understanding and better utilization of this highly effective learning method.
Another line of research investigates factors that influence flexibility in goal pursuit. In particular, we are interested in whether people who form stories from their past experiences are more likely to be able to take advantage of better unexpected opportunities or find alternatives when they encounter obstacles on the way to a goal in the distant future.