Puritanical Bias

What is Puritanical Bias?

Puritanical bias is a critical label for moral disapproval of pleasure or praise of self-denial simply because an activity is difficult or unpleasant. It is not a standardized psychological diagnosis or a single established experimental effect.

Related argument about self-control

In Self-Control and Its Discontents, George Loewenstein warns against attributing complex problems primarily to personal self-control. He calls a related tendency a “Calvinist” bias and argues that excessive future-mindedness can also create problems.

Puritanical bias and pleasure

For example, someone might judge a restful afternoon as morally worse than an exhausting one solely because rest is enjoyable. This illustrates the broader criticism of condemning pleasure and praising self-denial; it is not a research finding. Distinguish this usage from Loewenstein's argument about explaining outcomes through deficient self-control while neglecting situational and social causes.