Episode 14 – New Year’s Resolutions: can we use science to make them stick?

Welcome to 2022! You might have mixed feelings about what is to come in the year ahead… a new year often brings a lot of hope, excitement and promise, but with so much uncertainty in the world at the moment, many are feeling quite despondent, and justifiably so. It follows that many of us have been less successful with attaining resolutions and goals over the past few years, mostly due to Covid-related disruption. Aleena and Janine decided to check out the research literature around New Year’s resolutions – what can we learn that might be helpful in setting the right goals for us this year and in getting them to stick? They also square out about the world’s first *true* millipede, and explore the most efficient way to change a doona cover.

_{Mastering of this episode, plus intro and outro music, by the ever-talented Dr Adrian Diery.}

Is support helpful for smashing those New Year’s resolutions?

In this study, just over 1,000 adults were followed over 12 months to see how successful they were with their New Year’s resolutions. The researchers wanted to test whether support in the form of goal setting information and exercises increases the chance of success. They also looked at what effect the type of resolution has on chances of success.

The participants were randomly allocated to one of three groups: (1) no support; (2) some support; and (3) extended support. Some support seemed better than no support. But, interestingly, some support also seemed better than extended support. This was not what the researchers were expecting! The extended support also seemed no better than no support at all – curious!

Aleena takes us through the possible reasons for these results. Maybe there is a real Goldilocks effect here: not too little and not too much support does the trick.

The study also found that approach-oriented resolutions had a better chance of success than avoidance-oriented goals. So it might be that trying to do something is preferable to trying to avoid something (ever noticed how hard it is to “stop eating junk food”? Maybe a better goal is to try to “eat more nutritious foods”).

Plus some sisterly banter on Aleena’s and Janine’s own hopes and dreams for 2022. It’s the third year of a pandemic, so their ambitions are modest to say the least. They are sure you can relate?!

Oscarsson, M., Carlbring, P., Andersson, G., & Rozental, A. (2020). A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. PLoS One, 15(12), e0234097.

Does monitoring your progress towards goals improve chances of success?

This paper outlined an extensive systematic review. In total, 138 studies were found that met the strict criteria – that participants were randomly assigned to either a control group, or a group where they were guided on monitoring their goal progress in some way.

When all of the data were brought together, they researchers ended up with data from just under 20,000 individuals – aren’t systematic reviews just awesome?! The results showed that monitoring progress DID increase participants’ chances of success, but the effect was small to moderate in scale. Other factors that increased chances of success included physically recording progress, sharing progress publicly, monitoring frequently, and actually measuring the outcomes reached rather than what you might be doing to get there. Past studies have also shown that that having a strong intention to reach a particular goal is important too.

Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P., Prestwich, A., Conner, M., Kellar, I., … & Sheeran, P. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(2), 198.

Putting it all together…

Here is a quick checklist that summarises what we learned, which you might like to use to improve the chances of success with your next resolution/goal:

• Strong intention is important: make sure you really want to achieve it
• Frame it positively around what you DO want to do, rather than what you might want to avoid.
• Gather support from others, but only to level that feels right for you
• Monitor the the current state or outcome
• Physically record progress regularly
• Share progress with others in way you feel comfortable

What brought out our inner square?

Janine is stupidly excited about the discovery of the world’s first true millipede! Although millipede literally translated to “thousand legs”, no millipede has ever been found with more than 750 legs… until now!

Janine’s old Ph.D. office pal Dr Bruno Buzatto made an absolutely amazing discovery while doing field work in Western Australia: a teeny tiny millipede that lives underground and has 1,306 legs!!! Great to see millipedes and invertebrates getting the attention in the media that they rightly deserve!

Janine has been madly bookmarking everything she can about this. Check out this and this and this and this! And below is the original scientific paper. Awesome work Bruno and team.

Marek, P. E., Buzatto, B. A., Shear, W. A., Means, J. C., Black, D. G., Harvey, M. S., & Rodriguez, J. (2021). The first true millipede—1306 legs long. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-8.

On a completely unrelated note, Aleena knows the way she changes her doona cover is not effective, so wants to know what the best method is. Could it be the burrito method? Janine thinks the burrito method is far too slow, and prefers this rapid solution. So which is better? You be the judge! And if you know of a better method, definitely get in touch and the Sister Doctor Squared crew will do the requisite research to determine if you are right!

_{Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash}