Prevent Yourself from Biting Your Nails with a Bracelet

Catherine Auten

 

photo by: Maxwell GS

“In its severe forms, it causes not only aesthetic concerns—and consequently, social embarrassment—but also bleeding, infections, and dental problems”. This list seems to be describing the symptoms of a severe and disfiguring disease. However, these are the negative effects caused by nail biting- an activity that 20-50% of American adults engage. Unfortunately, most nail biters find it extremely difficult to break the habit. They use all types of techniques to stop it, including putting a bitter tasting enamel on their nails. Researchers Gilly Koritzky and Eldad Yechiam tested the effectiveness of a nonremovable reminder to prevent nail biting. Use of the nonremovable reminder (a bracelet), compared using an aversion technique (bitter nail polish), produced a lower number of dropouts from the study because the subjects did not have to create the reminder themselves; the aversion technique was only more effective when the participants complied with every instruction.

The researchers split up eighty college students participating in the study into two groups and within those groups were two subgroups. One group was given a vinyl wristband to wear reminding them of their commitment to stop biting their fingernails. Participants would need to cut the bands off to remove this reminder, thus excluding themselves from further participation. One subgroup wearing the vinyl bands had the bands placed on their wrists and the other subgroup had the bands placed on their ankles. The second group was instructed to paint bitter tasting nail enamel on at least twice daily to remind them of their commitment to stop biting their fingernails. One subgroup in the nail enamel group was asked to use colored nail enamel; the other subgroup was instructed to use clear enamel.

The goal of the experiment was to measure the effectiveness of the nonremovable reminder versus the “aversion” method, which required routine maintenance from the participants, over a six week period. The researchers then controlled for different types of personalities by creating a “Delay Discounting Task” which would indicate a participant's relative desire for immediate gratification. The Delay Discounting Task was tested with a self-control questionnaire. Finally, the researchers assessed the students’ risk aversion to determine their likelihood to accept an instant reward in exchange for an undesirable, yet delayed, outcome.

The participants were then allowed to go on with their daily lives wearing either the vinyl bands or the nail enamel for six weeks checking in three different times with the researchers. The researchers encouraged every participant to be conscious of their nail biting and to try to stop and think about their reminder to their commitment every time they felt the urge to bite their nails. Between the second and third sessions, 26 percent of the participants using the nail enamel had dropped out, while only 12 percent of the participants wearing the nonremovable band dropped out. However, when excluding the dropouts, the aversion method of using the bitter nail enamel resulted in less nail biting among participants.

Forty-two of the original participants attended a follow up assessment five months after completing the study. In this follow up, the researchers found that nail biting had increased from the initial completion of the study, but decreased from the participants’ original habits before the study. Unfortunately, researchers found no significant differences in the long-term success of those who used the vinyl bands versus those who used the aversion technique.

The study proved that a nonremovable reminder can be an effective way to curb the impulsive behavior of biting nails. Even better, the nonremovable reminder method proved to be more successful at preventing people from giving up on their behavior modification goals because it does not require people to remember to create a reminder for themselves. The nonremovable reminder solves the problem of “who will guard the guards.” So, for all of you forgetful nail-biters out there, the “nonremovable reminder” method may be the best and lowest maintenance way for you to stop the chewing.

Works Cited

Koritzky, Gilly, and Eldad Yechiam. "On the Value of Nonremovable Reminders for Behavior Modification." Behavior Modification 35.6 (2011): 511-30. Behavior Modification. Sage Journals, 26 Aug. 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2012.