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Procrastination
The Secret Reason So Many of Us Procrastinate
... and how you can help yourself stop.
Posted July 16, 2015 Reviewed by Devon Frye
There’s no way of telling just how common the procrastination phenomenon is. But given the well-validated theory of psychological reactance, it’s safe to say that at some point we've all probably been guilty of it—that is, you have probably delayed something which not only would be good for you to do but which you actually want to do.
In such instances, what best explains your (unconsciously) choosing to sabotage yourself?
Simply put, it’s all about free will—or at least what you believe is your inherent privilege to choose freely what feels right to you. Psychological reactance postulates that we all have an impulse to react negatively to any outside influence that threatens our deep-seated, highly coveted desire for personal autonomy. Whether it’s a matter of dignity or pride, or a strong sense of self-determination, when we know we have to do something because someone whose authority is greater than ours has told us to (or maybe ordered us to) there’s something deep inside us that impels us to resist.
This is the case even when there’s really nothing about the task, project, or assignment that we dislike or find intimidating. In fact, the matter at hand might even be something that, if the circumstances were different, we’d much rather approach than avoid. Moreover, as the substantial literature on this subject has demonstrated, such a non-compliant or rebellious impulse exists largely independent of specific personality variables.
Here’s a simple example of this seemingly perverse dynamic: Say someone presents you with two ice cream cones—one chocolate, one vanilla. On your own, you’d choose chocolate over vanilla virtually every time. But if the individual holding out the two cones actually urges you to take the chocolate—maybe even coming uncomfortably close to shoving it in your face—it’s almost guaranteed that it will suddenly occur to you that you really haven’t had a vanilla cone in ages, and that maybe this would be the perfect time to reintroduce a little novelty in your life. After all, you’ve almost forgotten what vanilla ice cream tastes like since for so long you‘ve acted on your preference for chocolate.
Consider, further, that the more adamantly this person might push you to choose the chocolate cone, the more likely you are to dig in your heels and proclaim that—no—if you’re really being given a choice here, you’ve already decided to take the vanilla. And you’ll probably affirm this choice with a conviction that might surprise even yourself—and a certain amount of self-righteous indignation, too.
It should be fairly obvious that there’s something crucial at stake here—and it’s surely not the ice cream. This is likely a situation calling on you (maybe screaming at you!) to assert your free will over the felt pressure put on you by the domineering directive of the person who’s put himself in the (at least momentarily) “superior” position by making you this offer. If the “tone” of his action feels dogmatic or bullying, your sense of yourself—as a self-respecting, self-determining individual—can’t help but be endangered. So if you’re to avoid such an uneasy, uncomfortable feeling of being manipulated, condescended, or dictated to, you’ll likely conclude (whether consciously or not) that you really have no choice but to opt for the vanilla.
Make sense to you?
This is precisely what the whole social-psychological concept of reactance is about—the [universal] desire to think and behave freely with the corresponding tendency to react negatively to another person’s directives (Seltzer, 1983).
Compare this to being told that you must undertake something that, in fact, you want to undertake anyway. The fact that there are now “demand characteristics” added to the project or task may, to whatever degree, make it feel less desirable to you. Comparatively speaking, you’re more likely to find yourself procrastinating—maybe without quite understanding why. After all, you do want to do this thing. Still, your largely unconscious resistance may give you pause. And so, governed by such ambivalence, you may literally have to fight yourself to get started on the project, or to complete it.
In the substantial literature on reactance, there’s actually a term known as reactance procrastination. And there are numerous examples demonstrating the phenomenon: Take the case of an alcoholic who knows he (or she) needs to stop drinking. But one of the psychological (vs. physical) reasons they can’t stop is their feeling—despite its blatantly negative effects on their life, which they're well aware of—that they should still have the freedom to drink. This is a rarely acknowledged explanation of why they resist others’ trying to “pressure” them into abstinence. Particularly if, as children, they were abused by their parents, or over-controlled by them (i.e., not allowed sufficient choices), they may feel an urgent inner pressure to proclaim their freedom to drink, despite being vaguely aware that it’s slowly killing them or their protestations to others that they really do intend to stop.
Here’s how one article describes it: “If a person’s behavioural freedom is reduced, or threatened with reduction, the individual feels an increased amount of self-direction in regard to their own behaviour, where they feel that they can do as they like and do not have to do what others tell them. [This situation] also increases the overall attractiveness of that [threatened or] eliminated free behaviour.” And—additionally important in all this—“Psychological reactance may play a [greater] role in procrastination if individuals have rebelliousness, hostility and/or disagreeableness traits.”
Regarding your own possible challenges with procrastination, at least as they relate to reactance, how do you resolve this? It’s mostly a matter of:
- Becoming more conscious of why you’re feeling a need to hesitate or delay.
- Reminding yourself that undertaking the task in a timely fashion is really in your own best interests.
Essentially, you’re choosing to do it not because of any outward coercion but because it makes perfectly good sense to do it and it’s well within your capabilities and interests. You can pay adequate “homage” to your ambivalence simply by recognizing it—and perhaps even getting yourself to laugh at it.
You’re no longer a child seeking to establish a separate identity from your parents (your original authority figures) by emphatically saying "No!" Therefore, you don’t want such ancient self-confirmation impulses to get the better of you.
Still, it makes sense to realize that your tendencies toward resistance are natural and altogether human. But, as I’ve suggested, honoring this ambivalence doesn’t necessitate giving in to it by allowing it to take “authority” over you—especially when it’s contrary to your better judgment. Overriding what’s instinctual in you, you’ll be more “free” to start or complete a task simply because it’s beneficial to your welfare, rather than resisting it as a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that someone else is telling you to do it.
Note: For a far more basic self-help approach to the thorny subject of procrastination, here's an additonal piece I've written for Psychology Today on the subject: “End Procrastination for Good: How to Revise Your Life Script.”
© 2015 Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.
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