This experiment tested the hypothesis that a fantasy will impel people to “act out” only if they fail to distinguish the fantasy from the anticipated reality. In the experiment, one task obtained a baseline measure of how long subjects could resist eating popcorn, then measured how long subjects could resist popcorn while fantasizing its taste. Another task instructed subjects to merge three circular images with three circular percepts of equal vividness, then presented subjects unexpectedly with only two of the three circular percepts. Some subjects thought that there were three circular percepts during the merger, and for these subjects, the length of resistance to popcorn was significantly shorter during the popcorn fantasy. But for subjects who selfconsciously differentiated the two real circles from the three merging images, the normal “boundary” between wishful fantasy and willful eating was intact.
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