Control is easier to exert at early stages than once circumstances compel

Evidence

In the sequential gradient of controllability, it is easier to exercise control at incipient phases of an activity than after finding oneself forced by compelling circumstances to behave otherwise. For example, a heavy drinker has a good chance of arriving home sober after an evening meeting by picking a barless route home rather than a route with inviting bars that present the challenge of having to resist a brief stopover and the even tougher task of controlling the amount drunk, should the drinker choose to go in. What is seemingly uncontrollable under compelling circumstances is controllable at its incipient points. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 328

Categorization

• XREF: This gradient-of-control idea parallels the reader’s interest in how people rationalize support for harmful policy — intervention at incipient points of prejudice before escalation. — connects to: Control is easiest to exercise at the incipient point of a behavior chain
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 328