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<\/a><\/p>\nFor that reason, we might somehow overlook the signs that our efforts fell short. Or, we might exaggerate skimpy data to suggest that we succeeded.<\/p>\n
To overcome these all-too-human tendencies, we need well designed research to gather and analyze data. The only way to demonstrate success<\/em> is to look hard for failure<\/em>.<\/p>\n To look\u00a0especially<\/em> hard for failure, we might look at two different kinds of evidence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For example: does self-control training<\/strong> work?<\/p>\n To answer this question, let’s start by having\u00a011-year-olds go through a self-control training program. At the same time, we’ll identify a control group that doesn’t get the training.<\/p>\n We can see if the training worked in two different ways.<\/p>\n First<\/strong>: several years later, have those children (now 25 years old!) provide information about their lives. Have they completed high school? College? Do they have a job? Have they been arrested? Do they frequently get in fights?<\/p>\n We can also have their parents fill out similar surveys. Oh, and we’ll have the control group fill out surveys as well.<\/p>\n Are the children who got self-control training likelier to have more education and a job? Less likely to harm themselves and others? If yes, those differences suggests that they used those self-control strategies well.<\/p>\n Second<\/strong>: we can\u00a0look at their brains<\/em>.<\/p>\n In particular, we have decades of research showing the importance of a particular brain region for self control.<\/p>\n Roughly speaking, we want self-control regions of the brain — the prefrontal cortex (PFC) — to communicate well with the emotional drivers of human behavior. Better PFC communication means better self-control.<\/p>\n That brain region is in the middle (medial<\/em>) part of the underside (ventral<\/em>) of the PFC. So, we call it the ventromedial prefrontal cortex: vm-PFC. (Important note: neuroscience is\u00a0fantastically<\/em> complicated. This summary is a very streamlined version of a wildly intricate web of brain connectivity.)<\/p>\n So, after we survey the students who went through self-control training, we can have them hang out in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) gizmo.<\/p>\nTaking It Up a Notch<\/h2>\n