Pitfalls of self-reported measures of self-control: Surprising insights from extreme debtors.

Objective: We took a rare opportunity to examine whether extreme debtors have inflated assessment of their self-control capacity, potentially rendering self-reported measures ineffective as prediction tools for debt risks.

Method: The self-control profiles of extreme debtors (n = 1442), whose credit card debt amounted to more than 12 months of their income, were compared with samples of the general population (n = 505) and students from an elite university (n = 1011) on a self-reported measure, a behavioral intention measure, and an executive function measure.

Results: Extreme debtors reported the highest self-control on the self-reported measure but scored the lowest on the behavioral intention measure and executive function.