This might explain why NoFap works for some, but not for others

https://curiosity.com/topics/feelin...ol-heres-a-simple-way-to-do-better-curiosity/

In a series of five experiments, four involving food and one involving money, the researchers sought to examine how consumers responded differently after confessing versus just keeping their transgression to themselves, and to tease out the role of guilt.

Though each experiment varied somewhat to explore different nuances, they all asked participants to consider an episode of self-control failure, consider disclosing their slip-up, and then consider their subsequent behavior. In order to make sure the findings could be broadly applied, subjects included university students and adults of all ages using the MTurk platform.

The researchers found that the interaction of guilt and confession help explain the contradiction they observed. In high-guilt scenarios, the act of confession predicted increased self-control next time. In low-guilt scenarios, however, confessing actually led to poorer self-control, suggesting that insincere confessions might actually undercut any benefit we might gain from seeking accountability.
Two Other Factors

The researchers found that two additional factors influenced the effect of guilt on confession: public accountability and self-discrepancy — the degree to which a person feels their actions diverge from their standards.

"If you just wrote your confession on a piece of paper and tore it up, it wouldn't work," Haws says. "You need to know that someone else might see it."

Furthermore, she says, when guilt is high, confessing reduces self-discrepancy — in other words, it brings us closer in line with how we think we ought to be — and that seems to help empower us to do better next time.

Haws says this research could eventually help organizations like weight-loss support groups and addiction recovery facilities understand how and when publicly confessing missteps to their peers can help their clients change their behavior — and when it might undermine them instead.