I’m still not convinced that willpower is a limited resource. In fact, thinking of it as such may be self-fulfilling prophecy; ironically, you can use “out of willpower” as an excuse to slack off.
Previous research suggested that an individual’s capacity to self-regulate is limited, and easily depleted. The strength, or resource, model posits that self-regulation operates like a muscle, fatiguing after use and requiring rest. We attempted to replicate studies that supported this model. In Experiment 1, participants completed the Stroop task (requiring self-regulation), and then squeezed a handgrip exerciser as long as they could (a measure of self-regulatory depletion). In Experiment 2, participants were instructed NOT to think about a white bear as they wrote down their thoughts; depletion was then measured by time working on difficult anagrams. Self-regulatory depletion was not evident in either study. A new model for understanding the key psychological process of self-regulation may be needed.
ETA: The journal where I found the study describes itself as follows “In the past other journals and reviewers have exhibited a bias against articles that did not reject the null hypothesis. We seek to change that by offering an outlet for experiments that do not reach the traditional significance levels (p < .05).”
I believe that each individual’s store of willpower is different. May be you are one of those individuals with a huge reserve and thus don’t find it a limited resource.
Why is this comment being voted down? I thought it made a good point when it noted that willpower as a limited resource might be self-fulfilling prophecy.
I’m still not convinced that willpower is a limited resource. In fact, thinking of it as such may be self-fulfilling prophecy; ironically, you can use “out of willpower” as an excuse to slack off.
Prophecies aside, here’s a study that seems to have failed to replicate Baumeister’s ego depletion findings: Self-Regulation: A Challenge to the Strength Model
ETA: The journal where I found the study describes itself as follows “In the past other journals and reviewers have exhibited a bias against articles that did not reject the null hypothesis. We seek to change that by offering an outlet for experiments that do not reach the traditional significance levels (p < .05).”
I believe that each individual’s store of willpower is different. May be you are one of those individuals with a huge reserve and thus don’t find it a limited resource.
Why is this comment being voted down? I thought it made a good point when it noted that willpower as a limited resource might be self-fulfilling prophecy.