Restraint Bias Explained: When Overconfidence Tricks Your Self-Control

The Biased Brain Podcast with Owen Hawthorne

Explore the intriguing world of cognitive biases and human cognition in this engaging podcast. Discover how bias in decision making shapes our perceptions and influences our choices. Join us as we delve into the science behind critical thinking and biases, providing practical insights to enhance your understanding and control over your thought processes. Whether you're a psychology student or curious observer, this podcast offers valuable tools to help you unveil the hidden biases in your mind.

Understanding Restraint Bias: Why We Overestimate Our Self-Control

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Oh, I can resist that temptation easily,” only to find out later you couldn’t? Maybe it was saying no to one more slice of pizza, ignoring the urge to scroll endlessly on your phone, or sticking to a budget when shopping. If this sounds familiar, you’re experiencing what psychologists call restraint bias.

Restraint bias is a type of cognitive bias where people overestimate their ability to control impulses. Essentially, we tend to believe we have more self-control than we actually do. This kind of bias can trip us up in a variety of situations, subtly influencing our decisions and behavior.

Let me give you some relatable examples to explain this better:

• Dieting and Junk Food: Imagine someone trying to eat healthy. They might tell themselves, “I only want that cookie this once,” believing they won’t continue snacking. But that first "just one" often leads to more than intended because they underestimated how tempting the junk food really is.
• Gambling: A person might say, “I’m only going to bet $20 and quit,” convinced they won't get carried away. However, the restraint bias makes them overconfident, and they end up gambling more than they planned.
• Digital Distraction: Many people think, “I’ll just check my phone for a minute.” Yet, hours slip by as scrolling or watching videos becomes hard to stop. The biased brain underestimates how sticky these digital temptations are.

This bias is closely related to other cognitive quirks in human cognition where our mind misjudges situations based on our beliefs rather than facts. We think because we’ve successfully resisted before, or because we “know” we’re strong-willed, that future restraint will be just as easy. But in reality, real-life temptations and emotional triggers often override that confidence.

Why does this happen? There’s a lot to unpack, but it helps to think in terms of bias in decision making. When we anticipate a challenge to willpower, our brain runs through a quick internal simulation of the event. However, these mental simulations often fail to capture the full force of temptation or emotional states we’ll actually feel later.

In other words, we’re planning with rose-tinted glasses and end up underestimating the difficulty of staying disciplined. This makes restraint bias not just a fun example of our brain’s quirks, but a real obstacle to effective critical thinking and biases awareness.

What’s fascinating about restraint bias is it’s not just about self-control; it also affects how we interact with others and interpret situations. For instance, we might judge someone else harshly if they “gave in” to temptation, while still believing we'd easily resist the same impulse. It’s a classic case of the “biased brain” viewing our own behavior differently than others’ behavior.

If you’re curious to learn more about restraint bias within the larger landscape of cognitive biases, I highly recommend checking out the book, The Biased Brain by Bo Bennett, PhD. It’s a brilliant read that explores how these biases influence all aspects of our thinking and decision-making.

Understanding cognitive biases like restraint bias helps us build better strategies to avoid pitfalls in our daily lives — whether managing habits, making smarter choices, or simply being kinder to ourselves when things don’t go as planned.

So next time you find yourself saying, “I’ve got this,” before facing temptation, remember restraint bias is working behind the scenes. Knowing about it makes you far better equipped to question your initial confidence and plan for real-life challenges accordingly.

Explore the book and unravel the secrets of your mind today! Visit The Biased Brain to dive deeper into human cognition and discover how to spot and manage bias in decision making for a clearer, fairer way of thinking.

Mitigate the Effects of Cognitive Biases and Become More Reasonable Register for the Online Course and Engage in Passive "Micro-learning" link Enroll Today