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When your body tells you that you really have to go, what's the most important thing you should do? Make some important life decisions, perhaps. Controlling your bladder might make you better at controlling your future or at least making decisions that affect it.
According to a study in Psychological Science, scientists found that activating sexual excitement, hunger or thirst, to name a few, can actually make people want other, seemingly unrelated, rewards more. Psychological scientist Mirjam Tuk, of the University of Twente in the Netherlands, came up with the idea for the study while attending an unusually long lecture -- during which she drank several cups of coffee. By the end of the talk, she says, "All the coffee had reached my bladder. And that raised the question: What happens when people experience higher levels of bladder control?"
Tuk designed experiments to test whether self-control over one bodily functions can generalize to other parts of the body as well. In one, participants drank five cups of water. After 40 minutes -- about the amount of time it takes for liquid to reach the bladder -- the researchers assessed subjects' self-control. They were asked to make eight choices, each of which was between receiving a small but immediate reward, and a larger but delayed reward.
Researchers found that people with full bladders were better at holding out for the larger reward later. Further experiments reinforced this link. In one of them, the subjects were asked to only think about words related to urination, and that triggered the same effect.
"You seem to make better decisions when you have a full bladder," Tuk says. Next time you have to decide between colors to paint your kitchen -- or retirement funds may be you should do so on a full bladder.
... And when do you find you make your best decisions? Let me know here.
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