USA Today has a dilemma. Tell the people what they want to hear, or report the truth.
On one hand, telling people what they want to hear sells more newspapers. But if they report falsehoods, they lose credibility.
To their credit, USA Today is transparent about their crass motives. In a recent article, they acknowledge that most people (71%) "think willpower is something they can learn," so they cravenly devote most of the article to reinforcing this (false) popular notion by publishing the discredited theories of a crackpot psychologist who advocates that people "work on ways to delay instant gratification" and "practice self-control".
Again, to their credit, USA Today seeks to retain a modicum of credibility, by quoting one of the country's foremost experts (executive director of the American Psychological Association), who throws cold water on most of the article's content. "Studies show that some people are better at resisting temptation than others, he says. 'They seem to innately have more self-control'." (In other words, willpower is not learnable.)
It's a neat trick, popularized by such noted charlatans as Dr. Phil. Tell the majority what they want to hear, and hope they miss the few sentences that you devote to the truth.
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