Xu Alison Jing, Albarracín Dolores
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, 321 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455.
University of Illinois, 603 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61822.
J Assoc Consum Res. 2016 Oct;1(4):557-568. doi: 10.1086/688222. Epub 2016 Aug 15.
Prior research shows that people demonstrate greater regulation of motor and social activities when they are in a confined physical space. This article examines whether space constraint affects people's behavior toward hedonistic consumption of vice products (e.g., high-calorie foods) and their self-regulation in general. We propose that space constraint may have a generalized effect that enhances regulation of behaviors that are unrelated to the space. Manipulating space constraint by varying density or by assigning individual participants to different-sized rooms, three experiments demonstrated that smaller (vs. larger) spaces reduce impulsive purchase of vice products, lead to lower consumption of high-calorie foods, and yield fewer false alarms in a go/no-go task. Consistent with our findings, both international and US data showed that more densely populated regions have a lower prevalence of outcomes associated with low self-control (e.g., prevalence of overweight and obesity, death caused by road traffic accidents).
先前的研究表明，当人们处于有限的物理空间中时，他们对运动和社交活动的控制能力更强。本文探讨空间限制是否会影响人们对不良产品（如高热量食物）的享乐性消费行为以及他们的自我控制能力。我们认为，空间限制可能会产生一种普遍的影响，增强对与空间无关行为的控制。通过改变密度或为个体参与者分配不同大小的房间来操纵空间限制，三项实验表明，较小（相对于较大）的空间会减少对不良产品的冲动购买，降低高热量食物的消费，并在“是/否”任务中产生更少的误报。与我们的研究结果一致，国际和美国的数据均显示，人口密度较高的地区与低自我控制相关的结果（如超重和肥胖的患病率、道路交通事故导致的死亡）的发生率较低。
