Featured Post from University of Delaware

New Year's Resolutions: Why they fail and how we can stick to them

Jan 3, 2025

3 min

By now, most people have already made their New Year's resolutions and (hopefully) put them into practice. But most people — about 90% — give up on them within the first few weeks of the year. University of Delaware experts dig into the psychology behind why resolutions fail and offer a recipe for success.

The timing of New Year’s resolutions also isn’t always ideal. According to Philip Gable, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, a lack of commitment is one reason why many people fail to achieve their goals.

“New Year's resolutions sometimes lack in commitment,” he said. “It's just this time of year when people feel like they should make a resolution, as opposed to other times in the year when it's less common but maybe more meaningful, like if you get a doctor's report and realize you need to change that aspect of your life.”

In order to be part of the 10% of people who keep their New Year’s resolutions, Gable said to break down big goals into small, achievable steps.

“I think a lot of times with goals, people will commit to a very big goal and not realize the smaller steps they need to take to achieve that goal,” Gable said. “If we have too big of a goal, we get emotionally distressed when we can't do it, or we fail because we set too big of a goal. Or maybe we couldn't think through all of the elements required to meet that really big goal. So starting small gives us something achievable, and then that gives you a platform to go to the next thing.”

Naomi Sadeh, associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware, said that part of the reason it’s so hard to make long-term changes is that humans are wired to prioritize instant gratification over delayed rewards. In other words, when posed with an option, we tend to pick the easy choice with an immediate outcome to satisfy a need today instead of delaying gratification for a bigger reward — we splurge on items we don’t really need instead of saving money, order takeout instead of cooking a healthy meal, or binge-watch a TV show instead of going to the gym.

“With impulsivity and with breaking New Year's resolutions, often it's when people tend to opt for that sooner, smaller reward over the longer, bigger reward,” Sadeh said. “The sooner reward is really tempting, even if it's not as satisfying in the long run as the longer goal or bigger goal that you had.”

When people set goals, they tend to feel very motivated for a few days and falsely assume they’re committed to their goal. But as soon as that motivation wears off, they give up.

“There's potentially a mismatch in the timing of your goals,” said Rob West, interim chair and professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “Your goals are immediate, they're conscious, they're volitional. You have those in the moment, and they can be developed and abandoned quickly. But habits take a considerable amount of time and repetition.”

To connect directly with Gable, visit his profile and click on the connect button. Interviews with other researchers can be arranged by contacting UD's Media Relations department.

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Philip Gable

Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences

Prof. Gable has expertise in emotion and motivational science; our sense of time, and neuroscience

Emotional TheoryMotivationNeuroscienceSocial PsychologyAutism

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Delaware emerges as a test bed for the future of AI in health care

Delaware is positioning itself as a “living lab” where academia, health systems and government collaborate to shape the future of artificial-intelligence-enabled health care. The latest issue of the Delaware Journal of Public Health, guest edited by University of Delaware computer scientists Weisong Shi and Yixiang Deng, brings together 16 articles from researchers, clinicians, policymakers and industry leaders examining how AI and big data are reshaping health care. The issue, debuting this month, balances Delaware-specific topics with broader perspectives, highlighting three levels of impact: what Delaware can expect in the coming years, what other states can learn from Delaware’s approach and how UD research is advancing AI for health through collaborations. “At UD, we don’t work in isolation. We’re working closely with health care systems so that innovation happens together from the beginning,” says Shi, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Chair of UD’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences. Highlights from the issue include: The nation’s first nursing fellowship in robotics – ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest health system, created an eight-month fellowship to train bedside nurses to conduct applied robotics research. Nurses who completed the program reported higher job satisfaction, improved well-being and greater professional confidence, suggesting programs like this may help retain the bedside workforce and reduce nationwide staffing shortages. Wheelchairs that navigate hospitals on their own – UD researchers developed a prototype autonomous wheelchair that combines onboard sensors and computing with software that interprets spoken directions from users, a step toward moving beyond systems that only work in controlled environments. To operate effectively in health care settings, the researchers say, wheelchairs must be able to navigate crowded hallways, interact with doors and elevators and recover safely when sensors or navigation systems fail. Smarter insulin dosing for type 1 diabetes – Researchers are developing computer models to predict blood sugar (glucose) trends and guide insulin delivery, but must address issues such as noisy data, reliable real-time prediction and the computational limits of wearable devices. A review by UD researchers and colleagues emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, standardized datasets, advances in computational infrastructure and clinical validation to turn these models into practical tools that improve patient care. To interview Shi about AI in health care and the new DJPH issue, click his profile or email MediaRelations@udel.edu. ABOUT WEISONG SHI Weisong Shi is an Alumni Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Delaware. He leads the Connected and Autonomous Research Laboratory. He is an internationally renowned expert in edge computing, autonomous driving and connected health. His pioneering paper, “Edge Computing: Vision and Challenges,” has been cited over 10,000 times.