Because of this promise, President Roosevelt really gave up smoking.
As the ancients said, "A promise is worth a thousand dollars", "A man's words are to be feared, but a promise is to be recalled". Commitment makes people more clearly and consciously aware of their attitude, especially when the decider publicly promises and publicly expresses his personal position, his future behavior will be clearly defined.
Commitment is a constraint on people. It can encourage people to overcome difficulties and achieve their goals, remind people of the danger of retreat and escape, and warn people to be responsible for their decisions and actions.
Psychological experiment:
Experiment 1
Deutsch and Gerard first let all subjects watch a video. After watching it, they were divided into four groups:
The first group is a non-commitment group, that is, they know it clearly, but they don't need to explain their views publicly or privately.
The second group is the weak personal commitment group, which requires the subjects to write down their opinions on a magical board. This magic board is a kind of children's toy. You can write and draw by covering a piece of cellophane on the slate, but after removing the cellophane, the calligraphy and painting will disappear without leaving any trace.
The third group is a strong personal commitment group, which requires participants to write their opinions on a piece of paper. This paper doesn't need to be signed and won't be taken away, but it must be seen by others.
The fourth group is the public commitment group, which requires participants to write their opinions on a piece of paper, sign their names and tell them that the paper will be taken away.
The researchers let many assistants act as fake subjects and let them express their opinions to all the real subjects, and their opinions are the same. After that, please ask the real subjects to express their views publicly one by one.
The results show that people who did not express their opinions in advance have more coincidence rate, that is, they changed their opinions; The subjects in the weak commitment group knew that their opinions written on the magic board disappeared, but after all, they expressed themselves, so the situation of conformity was lower than that in the non-commitment group, that is, more people kept their opinions; The conformity rate of the strong private commitment group and the public commitment group is greatly reduced, that is to say, because both groups of subjects have made strong or public commitments, their views have been believed in their hearts, so it is difficult to change or rarely change.
Experiment 2
Manny and others studied nearly 200 American and Australian children aged 4-5. The researchers took the children to play games. There are five toys on the table in front of the children. The researchers asked each child to say which toy he liked best, then took the toy that was rated as his favorite from the table, and then asked the children to choose the best toy from the remaining toys, and so on until five toys were ranked.
Later, the researcher said to the children, "I am very willing to give you something, but these toys are not all mine, so you can take whichever of the two toys you like best." The researchers designed conditions for change and conditions for repentance, and randomly divided the children into two groups. In the commitment group, the children were told, "Think carefully about your choice, and once you have decided, don't change your mind." I'll write your name on the paper bag and then you can take it home. "
In the non-commitment group, the researchers told the children: "Think twice and choose one you like best, but if you want to change your mind and decide to change to another toy later, you can bring the original one and I will be happy to return it to you."
The results show that under the condition of commitment, the decision-making time of children is twice as long as that of children in non-commitment group. This shows that even for young children, commitment has a warning effect, which allows them to spend more time carefully considering their choices.
After reading the above experiment, I can't help but think of a story in Zhuangzi: "Tail lives under the beam with a woman, and if the woman doesn't come, the water can't go, so I cling to the beam." The promise and trustworthiness of the ancients made us moved, moved and ashamed.
In fact, in some movies and literary works, we often see characters swear that "if I …", I will die a natural death; In some important occasions in real life, organizers or organizers also require participants to solemnly decide "I swear, I will join voluntarily", "As a ... I will", "I will" and so on.
Don't underestimate these words, because commitment means responsibility, and you are also responsible for yourself and others. Therefore, commitment is a serious matter, not a blank check, not just words. But to put it into practice, however, fulfilling the promise requires decision makers to pay great perseverance and cost.
Don't lie, keep your word, keep your word and do what you want. This is a basic principle and a virtue of being a man. In interpersonal communication, people have a strong tendency to like people who are honest and trustworthy, but hate people who are glib, fickle or duplicitous.
Therefore, an adult with mature psychology and noble quality knows the weight of commitment, and he will not easily joke about his reputation. If the conditions are not met, he will not put unnecessary pressure on himself. And once he makes a promise, he will go all out. Therefore, in moral education, as educators, we should consciously guide children to learn to correctly understand their commitments and responsibilities as soon as possible, and cultivate their perseverance and positive action quality in realizing their commitments.