The surprising new science of willpower.
Why everything you know about willpower is wrong.
The case for unwilling will
Does this sound like you? After a long day at work, you reach home and barely muster the energy to cook dinner. Your mind tells you to take it easy. You take the cue and reach out for a bag of chips and soda. Before you realize it; you sink into the couch, cruising through the next episode of Money Heist. Everything else takes a backseat now. Your morning resolve to go to the gym stares at you in despair while you convince yourself that you deserve to chill today. It is your reward after a tiring day. But is that the only explanation?
Psychological researchers have a name for this phenomenon: ego depletion. The word ego has psychoanalytic overtones in this context. It means the active-thinking self. It posits that attempts to exert self-control causes ego depletion, usually due to suppressing thoughts, emotions, urges, or behaviour.
Everyone has a limited “reserve” of mental strength to draw from. So if you spend most of your time depleting your willpower by resisting temptations or deciding (“decision fatigue”), then you are most likely to give in to your cravings later.
This theory perfectly explains my after-work indulgences. I’m so exhausted being productive that by the time I get home, I just don’t have any willpower left to resist binge eating.
It, therefore, makes sense that I go home and eat a pizza while watching TV, right? It’s because I’m so depleted from trying hard all day! Think again!
The rise of the depleted ego
Roy Baumeister and colleagues at the Case Western Reserve University conducted a study in 1998 that provided scientific support for ego depletion. To date, over 5000 research papers have cited this study.
Baumeister and his fellow researchers invited two groups to wait in a room with two plates of food. They requested the participants to skip a meal and not to eat 3 hours before the experiment. One plate contained freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, while on the other were red and white radishes. Each group could choose to eat from either of the two plates but not from the other. Researchers assumed that to resist eating the cookies, the group which had only radishes will have to exert significantly higher willpower.
Following this, they gave the participants a puzzle to solve. The puzzle, however, was impossible to solve. Researchers were curious to know which group will work longer on the puzzle before quitting. Because significant self-control is required to not eat the cookies, they thought the radish group will give up on the puzzle sooner. And they were right.
On average, those who denied themselves the cookies could sustain just 8 minutes. As for the cookie eaters and a control group that did only the puzzle-solving part of the experiment, they lasted 19 minutes.
Thus, Baumeister concluded that we have a limited supply of willpower, and it depletes with excessive use, just as a muscle that can be fatigued. Faced with fresh-baked cookies, munching on a radish is a tough act of self-denial, enough to wear you out.
Following their groundbreaking study, Baumeister’s lab, and several other published studies with similar procedures. To deplete the subjects’ willpower, the scientists would ask them to do a self-control task; refraining from eating chocolate chip cookies, watching a sad movie without reacting, etc. Minutes later, they would put them to the test with a puzzle, a game, or something else that required mental effort.
In 2010, Martin Hagger and fellow researchers published a meta-analysis to test the Ego-Depletion hypothesis. Upon analyzing data from 83 studies and 198 experiments, they confirmed that Ego-Depletion was a real and reliable phenomenon.
In 2011 Baumeister, with John Tierney, co-authored, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, a pop-sci self-help book based on his research. It was an instant bestseller.
Thanks to the mounting research from across the globe, the theory of ego depletion spread like a wildfire. It soon became the holy grail of willpower research. Newspapers and magazines were full of articles explaining willpower is like a muscle, that gets stronger with exercise, and similar notions. There was an avalanche of self-help books, written by eminent psychologists, about how willpower was an overrated virtue.
Every day there are so many instances that make you say “ I can’t handle this anymore”. There are moments where you are emotionally, cognitively or physically drained. These are the moments you are likely to quit.
The theory builds upon this fundamental human trait, suggesting that when you are exhausted by resisting cravings and making tough choices you should take a break to reset your mental reserve.
This dumbing down of behaviour science has strengthened the acceptance of Ego Depletion theory by the mainstream and the masses. For the average person, this made perfect sense. Finally, their self-defeating behaviours were vindicated by science.
When the Cookie Crumbled: Is Ego Depletion Real?
Baumeister’s theory stood invincible for almost 2 decades until it all started crumbling. New research, however, suggests that the ego-depletion theory of willpower may be incorrect. Believing that willpower is a limited resource can harm you, causing you to lose control and err on the side of ignorance.
The first person to challenge Baumeister’s findings was Evan Carter, then a graduate student at the University of Miami. He reviewed the findings of a 2010 meta-analysis of close to 200 experiments. His investigation revealed publication bias in the meta-analysis; studies with contradictory results were not published. Considering those studies, he found no convincing evidence for the ego-depletion theory.
A 2016 study published in the Perspectives on Psychological Science, using experiments approved by Baumeister and involving over two thousand participants tested at over two-dozen laboratories around the globe, tried to reproduce his results but did not find any evidence of ego depletion.
Two subsequent studies, published in PLOS ONE, could not replicate the results from the first study. Baumeister disputes the methodologies used in the follow-up studies, but the theory of ego depletion is now questioned by several in the scientific community.
Many elements of the theory, such as the claim that sugar or glucose can instantly replenish willpower (lemonade effect), have been discredited. Sugar from lemonade cannot enter the bloodstream fast enough to have a significant effect on mental energy or boost willpower. Neuroscientists always knew the brain does not use more blood sugar when working on arduous tasks. Because the brain is an organ rather than a muscle, it does not require more energy during strenuous activity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re solving Sudoku or watching Netflix; your brain consumes an equal amount of energy during the day.
Willpower: The New Approach
Why did the researchers get it so wrong? Isn’t it true that working hard drains your energy, so refuelling, with cookies or other treats, helps you cope with difficult tasks more effectively?
This is a classic example of how correlation does not imply causation.
Early ego-depletion studies may have observed anecdotal effects, but the researchers may have misinterpreted the results.
As You Think So Shall You Become
Recent research offers a different explanation for why you lose self-control. Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychology professor and the pioneer of the Growth Mindset theory, and her colleagues published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluding that only test subjects who believed willpower is a limited resource showed signs of ego depletion. There was no ego depletion among participants who did not view willpower as a finite resource.
Ego depletion is just another example of beliefs driving actions. Whenever you believe that you’re exhausted, you can feel terrible. Indulging yourself instead feels much better. Sugar in the lemonade does not bring sustained mental stamina, but the placebo effect does.
If ego depletion is indeed the result of self-defeating beliefs, one can’t help but imagine its harmful impact on society through the years. Despite the contradictory evidence questioning ego depletion, many influential people, often the likes of self-help gurus and motivational speakers, still support it.
Based on Dweck’s conclusions, then perpetuating willpower as a finite resource is doing the world more harm than good.
One consequence of propagating the ego-depletion hypothesis is that it makes you less likely to accomplish your goals by giving you an excuse to quit. And supporting theories such as the sugar-effect theory serves as a double whammy. Not only does it justify giving up on a task early, but could also lead you to consume unhealthy sugary foods or drinks more often.
Currently, Baumeister and his colleagues are looking at further research to prove ego depletion exists. It is possible that we can see the effects of willpower depletion in a carefully controlled laboratory setting, but it is naive to consider its effect in the real world, especially in the face of growing scientific evidence.
Maybe the concept of ego depletion offers a convenient justification for doing things that aren’t in your best interests. It is convenient to blame your depleted willpower as a reason to munch on french fries after a hectic day rather than being accountable for your actions.
You should accept that you are a fragile, inherently distractible entity instead of looking for hidden reserves of willpower. Adopting a mindset, then, that can make you believe you can flourish is a more powerful way to conserve willpower.
Willpower: An Infinite Emotion
Professor Michael Inzlicht, the principal investigator at the Toronto Laboratory for Social Neuroscience at the University of Toronto, believes willpower is not a finite resource but acts more like an emotion.
Just as you never run out of joy, sorrow, or other emotions, you don’t run out of willpower, either. It ebbs and flows based on how you perceive life at the moment.
The brighter side of considering willpower as an emotion than a resource is that you can control it to best serve your interests.
For one, if mental energy is more like an emotion than fuel in a tank, you can harness it to ride out of negative emotions. The same is true when you need to do a challenging task; instead of believing we’re fatigued and need to take a break (and chocolate chip cookies), it’s more productive and healthier to accept that a lack of motivation is just a passing emotion.
Motivational slumps aren’t always temporary. Sense of feeling is one way your body conveys information that your conscious minds might overlook.
However, prolonged lack of mental energy is a reminder to listen to your willpower just as you should pay attention to your emotions.
For instance, when I am distracted while working on a task, I know there’s a problem. It’s a clear sign that I’ve lost interest in the task if I check Instagram or WhatsApp more than I should. Although I could finish one or two tasks with little interest, I don’t think I’d be able to make a living out of it.
If I find a topic that intrigues me or is in line with my beliefs; I get zoned out and time flies. Work is no longer a struggle. I enjoy it. It might sound counterintuitive, but the more I work on tasks that need less willpower, the more energized I am. Rather than binge-watching Netflix, I just can’t wait to flaunt to the world the next big thing I am working on.
This feeling is what psychologist Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi calls being in the flow state.
Csikszentmihalyi states that flow is “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at greater cost, for the sheer sake of doing it” (1990).
Getting Over The Inner Conflict
Also, significant is aligning your actions with your core beliefs or desires. Your beliefs frame your identity. For your subconscious mind, it is blasphemous to act against your identity. In short, your identity drives your behaviour.
If you believe you cannot wake up early, your identity then becomes “I am not a morning person”. So you’d act like “not a morning person” would. Trying to wake up at 5 a.m. then becomes a struggle.
For you to invoke the least willpower, your actions and beliefs should be in harmony.
A disharmony means you will give up soon. After forcing yourself to wake up at 5 am for a few days after New Year’s, you fall back to your old patterns.
Psychologists call this phenomenon cognitive dissonance theory. It states that if your actions do not resonate with your core beliefs or innermost desires, it will lead to a conflict between the subconscious and the conscious mind.
The first step to making a lasting change without using much willpower is to change your self-narrative. So, to make waking early a habit, change your self-narrative from “not being a morning person” to someone who feels energized waking up early. This new narrative, over a period, becomes your new identity, then waking up late will cause cognitive dissonance instead. Waking up early will just become an integral part of you.
Conclusion
When you don’t enjoy doing a task, you give up easily. Thus, we can imagine why the people from Baumeister’s experiment gave up. Solving unsolvable puzzles at the whims of a scientist in a lab setup is neither fun nor meaningful. It was not ego-depletion but boring tasks which they had to do with no practical incentive. Many people have to endure such mindless tasks each day.
While you can push through tasks you don’t enjoy in the short run, refusing to acknowledge your innate feelings will never allow you to reach your full potential.
When you listen to your lack of willpower as though it were an emotion — working in tandem with your logical abilities — you can uncover paths that lead you to your goals with the least resistance.
To conclude, the key points to harness the power of will are:
- Willpower depends on your mindset, unlike popular belief it is not a limited resource that can deplete with use.
- Identify your core beliefs, the self-narrative that drives you.
- If your core beliefs are self-defeating, make a conscious (mindfulness) effort to change them to align with your larger interests.
- Recognize the behavioural changes you need to make so that your actions are in harmony with your new core beliefs.
- Remember the incentive (reward) behind your new behaviour to keep you motivated.
- Be aware of your emotions, a negative emotional state is temporary and will wane off.
- Finally, it is not easy to change your self-narrative. Every day you will face moments when the self-defeating thoughts will dominate your self-serving thoughts. Thoughts are always on a continuum, and if you are aware of these fleeting thoughts you can exert willpower consciously.
