Highly read on www.cell.com in August

Avoiding temptation is more effective than resisting it.

Molly Crockett, now at University College London, and her colleagues tested 78 men as they relied on willpower (resisting an available temptation) or precommitment (voluntarily restricting access to temptation) to obtain rewards.

After rating a set of erotic images, subjects could choose to view a less-enjoyable image immediately or a more-enjoyable one after a delay. In willpower tasks, the option to see the less-preferred image was always available, whereas in precommitment tasks, men chose at the outset whether to wait for a preferred image. Participants were more likely to gain the superior reward in precommitment scenarios, with the benefits of precommitment varying across individuals. Imaging of a subset of 20 men revealed that different brain areas were used for precommitment and willpower.

Neuron 79, 391–401 (2013)