Normally, people do not enjoy being forced to do something. People also do not enjoy the guilt that comes with doing something that is bad for them. Surprisingly, these two wrongs seem to make a right: when people are compelled to engage in vices, they feel better than when they freely choose the vice for themselves. According to a new paper in the Journal of Consumer Research, persuading a friend to share a dessert removes the burden of choice from them, reducing their feelings of guilt and making them less conflicted about the decision.

Vices—junk food, movie marathons, celebrity gossip news, procrastination—have adverse consequences. Choosing them is ‘bad’ and results in guilt that we don’t get from virtuous activities such as exercise, working on a passion project, or reading high-quality media. “It has long been believed that yielding to vices…is bad,” write the researchers. “While not disagreeing with this picture, the current research presents the observation that a negative view of vices does not quite tell the full story.”

The researchers suggest that the guilt of choosing vices weighs us down, reducing our sense of ‘subjective vitality.' Vitality, a term used to describe the feeling of being energized, has been linked to mental and physical wellbeing, improved task performance, tenacity, and self-control. It is not quite the same thing as happiness, which is a related but conceptually different experience.

Removing the element of choice from vices removes the guilt, suggest the researchers, giving people a vitality boost. This prediction was tested by presenting participants in the study with either a brownie or a carrot. Some participants were given a choice between eating the snack in front of them or writing a short essay. The others were given very little choice, simply being told to eat the snack they were presented with (although they still had the option of leaving the experiment).

The participants then answered a questionnaire that assessed their vitality, enjoyment levels, happiness, hunger, and the level of choice they perceived they had. There was no difference in hunger between the two groups, and happiness was influenced by how enjoyable the snack was (surprise—the brownies rating higher), but not at all by the amount of choice. For those given a virtuous carrot, the lack of choice had no impact on vitality. But for those who were given a brownie, having no choice in the matter was associated with increased vitality.

Follow-up studies used non-food options to ensure that the vitality boost was not caused by an increase in blood sugar or calorie consumption. Participants were given a choice between a book filled with celebrity gossip and a computer programming tutorial. Some were assigned either the celebrity or computer book, while others were able to choose freely. The same results followed: those who did not a choice about reading the lowbrow book had increased vitality compared to those who actively chose the celebrity book. Participants who rated higher on a scale of chronic guilt also saw more of a boost than those who did not experience as much guilt.

Boosts in vitality have real-world implications: increased vitality is known to enhance concentration, self-control, and creativity. These increases were all found in the participants who were forced to take the vice option. Because self-control is usually thought to enhance vitality, this is a surprising result. But the researchers say that vices generally have two opposing forces on vitality: the pleasure of them boosts vitality, but associated guilt reduces it. Removing the guilt by removing the choice allows an unmitigated increase in vitality.

If you interpret these results too literally, they seem to indicate that being forced to stay out late before studying for an exam should boost energy and self-control. There is more to consider than that, of course, such as a the vice choices having genuine consequences, like gaining weight or failing an exam. Beyond those is the issue that these results will need to be replicated by other groups.

However, this does perhaps lend some insight into why hard-sell marketing is so successful, as well as the widespread popularity of advertising that attempts to reduce guilt. Go on, you deserve that brownie.

Journal of Consumer Research, 2014. DOI: 10.1086/678321 (About DOIs).