The Willpower Paradox: Scientific American:

The takeaway is that if you keep telling yourself, “I will learn to play the guitar” you will not actually get around to learning to play guitar.
I’m curious about the actual result-data because there’s a fair-bit of editorializing in the article. For example, is it the language one uses, the effective brainwashing when I tell myself, “I will” versus, “will I?” that causes the two different responses, or is it something intrinsic to the individuals. I.e. if we take a conservative and a liberal and prime them with the correct language, will the conservative act like a liberal and a liberal act like a conservative?