The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It

by Kelly McGonigal

Or consider the effects of sexually graphic images on our reward system. For much of human history, you weren’t going to see a naked person posing seductively for you unless the opportunity for mating was real. Certainly a little motivation to act in this scenario would be smart if you wanted to keep your DNA in the gene pool. Fast-forward a few hundred thousand years, and we find ourselves in a world where Internet porn is always available, not to mention constant exposure to sexual images in advertisements and entertainment. The instinct to pursue every one of these sexual “opportunities” is how people end up addicted to X-rated websites—and victims of advertising campaigns that use sex to sell everything from deodorant to designer jeans.