ABSTRACT
Stress typically undermines people’s health behavior. For instance, studies found that under stress people are more inclined to break their diets or overeat (Adam & Epel, 2007), quit exercise programs (Stetson, Rahn, Dubbert, Wilner, & Mercury, 1997), smoke (Kassel, Stroud, & Paronis, 2003), and abuse alcohol and other drugs (Carney, Armeli, Tennen, Affleck, & O’Neil, 2000). It has been argued that one of the reasons why stress is associated with poor health behavior is that stress impairs people’s self-control (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996). Self-control can be broadly conceptualized as the process of advancing distal rather than proximal motivations whenever the two compete (Fujita, 2011; Hofmann, Friese, & Wiers, 2008). In the health domain, the conflict between short-term hedonistic motives and long-term motives is particularly evident. Many behaviors that contribute to health in the long-run are not inherently rewarding, such as staying away from palatable but unhealthy food, being physically active, or regularly doing health check-ups.
