WASHINGTON - If you think choosing between a candy bar and healthy snack is really a matter of free will, think again. A new study shows that the choices we make to indulge ourselves or exercise self-control depend on how the choices are presented.

Juliano Laran of the University of Miami tested subjects to determine how certain words and concepts affected consumers’ decisions for self-control or indulgence.

He found that consumer choices were affected by the actions most recently suggested to them by certain key words.

The tests involved a word-scramble containing words that suggested either indulgence or self-control, according to a university release.

“Participants who unscrambled sentences associated with self-control were more likely to choose a healthy snack (a granola bar) to be consumed right now, but an indulgent snack (a chocolate bar) to be consumed in the future,” writes Laran.

“Participants who unscrambled sentences associated with indulgence were more likely to choose an indulgent snack to be consumed right now but a healthy snack to be consumed in the future.”

A second study examined the same phenomenon, but it involved information associated with saving versus spending money.

Again, when information about saving money was active (participants had been exposed to words associated with saving money), participants said that they imagined themselves trying to save money while shopping in the present, but spending a lot of money while shopping in the future.

When words about spending money were suggested, the study showed the opposite result. “The type of information (self-control or indulgence) that is currently active may influence a decision for the future,” writes Laran.

“When information about self-control is currently active, decisions for the present will be virtuous, while decisions for the future will be indulgent. This result arises from people’s need to balance behaviours performed in the present with behaviours that will be performed in the future.”

These findings were presented in the Journal of Consumer Research.