Self-Control Cycles

Consumers often exhibit behavioral cycles with alternating abstinence and indulgence over time. In the framework of tempting good consumption under limited willpower, we develop a simple model of the self-control cycles. To do so, based on the empirically relevant property of self-control, we incorporate two countervailing effects that self-control behaviors have on willpower with different delays. First, exercising self-control as of restraining tempting consumption depletes willpower in the next instant, and thereby reduces mental capital available for self-control thereafter. Second, as the self-control experience is accumulated, the consumer's willpower is gradually enhanced. The resulting predator-prey type dynamics in consumers' cognitive mechanics lead to cycles in tempting good consumption. The self-control cycles occur when (i) the self-control cost reducing effect of willpower and (ii) the willpower enhancing effect of self-control are both sufficiently strong.