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Talk to yourself, gain more willpower

Exercising what researchers call “your inner voice” can improve your self-control and reduce impulsive behaviour – eating that second sweet treat or sending a rude email to an annoying co-worker.

Researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada put their volunteers through a series of challenges testing their self-control.

Researcher Professor Michael Inzlicht said: “Through a series of tests, we found that people acted more impulsively when they couldn’t use their inner voice or talk themselves through the tasks.”

Without being able to verbalise messages the volunteers would not able to exercise the same amount of self-control as when they could talk to themselves.

Professor Inzlicht continues: ‘It’s always been known that people have internal dialogues with themselves, but until now, we’ve never known what an important function they serve. This study shows that talking to ourselves in this “inner voice” actually helps us exercise self control and prevents us from making impulsive decisions.”

Alexa Tullett, author of the study, added: ‘We give ourselves messages all the time with the intent of controlling ourselves – whether that’s telling ourselves to keep running when we’re tired, to stop eating even though we want one more slice of cake, or to refrain from blowing up on someone in an argument.

So speak up and exercise your ‘inner voice’ – it’s good for you!

The research will be published in the science journal Acta Psychologica.

Have your say: do you talk to yourself? Does exercising your ‘inner voice’ help you with your self-control?