Cheat on your diet...or you might cheat on your spouse instead.

Photo: flickr/globalcosmicPsychologists have long known that we only have a limited amount of self-control at any given time. So, if you use it up in one area of your life, you're at risk of giving in to temptation in another area. This study focused on one example of this phenomenon: testing whether dieting makes people more likely to commit infidelity. The subjects were college students in committed relationships. First, they completed a "food-restriction task" that involved sitting in front of plates of radishes and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and being told to refrain from eating either the radishes or the cookies (the latter condition presumably requiring more self-control than the former, unless you're a rabbit). The subjects were then asked to participate in an online conversation with "a confederate" who was instructed to flirt with them and ask them out for coffee. Turns out that the people who had ...