題目：The Predictive Power of Self-Control for Life Outcomes

摘要：This study investigates the predictive power of self-control for individuals and their chil- dren using population representative data. We use the well-established Brief Self-Control Scale to demonstrate that people’s trait self-control is highly predictive of their life out- comes. Higher self-control is associated with better health, education, and employment outcomes as well as greater financial and overall well-being. Importantly, self-control of- ten adds explanatory power in addition to more frequently studied personality traits and economic preferences. The self-control of children is correlated with that of their parents, while higher parental self-control is also linked to fewer behavioral problems among chil- dren. Our results suggest that social interventions targeting self-control may be beneficial.

引子：The human capacity to exert self-control is arguably one of the most powerful and beneficial adaptations of the human psyche. Tangney et al. (2004 , p. 272)

研究問(wèn)題：We are thus able to use a common framework to investigate the role of self-control in predicting key life outcomes in an extraordinarily broad range of domains, including educational attainment, health and health-related behaviors, labor market outcomes, financial well-being, and life satisfaction.

研究動(dòng)機(jī)：While the use of the Big Five personality traits in explaining such life outcomes is now well-established among economists ( Almlund et al., 2011; Borghans et al., 2008; Heckman et al., 2021 ), trait self-control has received only lim- ited attention—likely due to a shortage of high-quality data on self-control.

結(jié)語(yǔ)：Choice inevitably involves trade-offs. It is therefore not surprising that people’s capacity for self-control has wide-ranging implications for the choices they make, the behaviors they adopt, and the outcomes they achieve.

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