Why Self-Control Is Like a Muscle
Page 55—Studying and self-control:
Oaten, M., and K. Cheng. “Academic
Examination Stress
Impairs Self-Control.”
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
24 (2005): 254–79.
P
age 56—Smoking and ice cream:
Duffy, J., and S. M. Hall. “Smoking Abstinence, Eating Style,
and Food Intake.”
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
56 (1988): 417–21.
Page 56—Drinking and endurance:
Muraven, M., and D. Shmueli. “The Self-Control Costs of
Fighting the Temptation to Drink.”
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
20 (2006): 154–60.
Page 56—Dieters cheat:
Gailliot, M. T., and R. F. Baumeister. “Self-Regulation
and Sexual
Restraint: Dispositionally and Temporarily Poor Self-Regulatory Abilities Contribute to Failures at
Restraining Sexual Behavior.”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
33 (2007): 173–86.
Page 57—Self-control runs out:
Baumeister, R. F., T. F. Heatherton, and D. M. Tice.
Losing
Control: How and Why People Fail at Self-Regulation
. San Diego: Academic Press, 1994.
Page 57—Shopping decisions drain willpower:
Vohs, K. D., R. F. Baumeister, B. J. Schmeichel, J.
M. Twenge, N. M. Nelson, and D. M. Tice. “Making Choices Impairs Subsequent Self-Control: A
Limited-Resource Account of Decision Making,
Self-Regulation, and Active Initiative.”
Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology
94 (2008): 883–98.
Page 57—The brain gets tired:
Inzlicht, M. I., and J. N. Gutsell. “Running on Empty: Neural
Signals for Self-Control Failure.”
Psychological Science
18 (2007): 933–37.
Page 60—Lemonade restores willpower:
Gailliot, M. T., R. F. Baumeister, C. N. DeWall, J. K.
Maner, E. A. Plant, D. M. Tice, L. E. Brewer, and B. J. Schmeichel. “Self-Control Relies on Glucose
as a Limited Energy Source: Willpower Is More Than a Metaphor.”
Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology
92 (2007): 325–36.
Page 60—Low blood sugar and bad behavior:
DeWall, C. N., T. Deckman, M. T. Gailliot, and B.
J. Bushman. “Sweetened Blood Cools Hot Tempers: Physiological Self-Control and Aggression.”
Aggressive Behavior
37 (2011): 73–80. See also Gailliot, M. T., B. Michelle Peruche, E. A. Plant,
and R. F. Baumeister. “Stereotypes and Prejudice in the Blood: Sucrose Drinks Reduce Prejudice and
Stereotyping.”
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
45 (2009): 288–90. See also DeWall, C .
N., R. F. Baumeister, M. T. Gailliot, and J. K. Maner. “Depletion Makes the Heart Grow Less
Helpful: Helping as a Function of Self-Regulatory Energy and Genetic Relatedness.”
Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin
34 (2008): 1653–62.
Page 61—Self-control’s energy costs:
Kurzban, R. “Does the Brain Consume Additional Glucose
During Self-Control Tasks?”
Evolutionary Psychology
8 (2010): 244–59.
Page 62—Neurons detect glucose availability:
Routh, V. N. “Glucose Sensing by the Brain:
Implications for Diabetes.”
UMDNJ Research
8 (2007): 1–3.
Pages 62–63—Energy budget model of self-control:
Wang, X. T., and R. D. Dvorak. “Sweet
Future: Fluctuating Blood Glucose Levels Affect Future Discounting.”
Psychological Science
21
(2010): 183–88.
Page 65—People make riskier investments when they’re hungry:
Symmonds, M., J. J. Emmanuel,
M. E. Drew, R. L. Batterham, and R. J. Dolan. “Metabolic State Alters Economic Decision Making
under Risk in Humans.”
PLoS ONE
5 (2010): e11090.
Page 65—Hungry people more interested in cheating:
Gailliot, M. T. “Hunger Impairs and Food
Improves Self-Control in the Laboratory and Across the World: The Hyperbole of Reducing World
Hunger as a Self-Control Panacea.” (2011, under review).
Page 65—A good guide for a willpower-boosting diet:
Pollan, M.
Food Rules: An Eater’s
Manual
. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Page 66—Setting deadlines strengthens self-control:
Oaten, M., and K. Cheng. “Improved Self-
Control: The Benefits of a Regular Program of Academic Study.”
Basic and Applied Social
Psychology
28 (2006): 1–16.
Pages 66–67—Examples of willpower training programs:
Baumeister, R. F., M. Gailliot, C. N.
DeWall, and M. Oaten. “Self-Regulation and Personality: How Interventions Increase Regulatory
Success, and How Depletion Moderates the Effects of Traits on Behavior.”
Journal of Personality
74 (2006): 1773–801. See also Muraven, M., R. F. Baumeister, and D. M. Tice. “Longitudinal
Improvement of Self-Regulation through Practice: Building Self-Control
Strength through Repeated
Exercise.”
The Journal of Social Psychology
139 (1999): 446–57. See also Muraven, M. “Building
Self-Control Strength: Practicing Self-Control Leads to Improved Self-Control Performance.”
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
46 (2010): 465–68. See also Oaten, M., and K. Cheng.
“Improvements in Self-Control from Financial Monitoring.”
Journal of Economic Psychology
28
(2007): 487–501.
Page 67—Training self-control to reduce violence:
Finkel, E. J., C. N. DeWall, E. B. Slotter, M.
Oaten, and V. A. Foshee. “Self-Regulatory Failure and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration.”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
97 (2009): 483–99.
Page 69—Resisting candy to strengthen self-control:
Geyskens, K., S. Dewitte, M. Pandelaere,
and L. Warlop. “Tempt Me Just a Little Bit More: The Effect of Prior Food Temptation Actionability
on Goal Activation and Consumption.”
Journal of Consumer Research
35 (2008): 600–10.
Page 70—Why we fatigue:
Noakes, T. D., A. St. Clair Gibson, and E. V. Lambert. “From
Catastrophe to Complexity: A Novel Model of Integrative Central Neural
Regulation of Effort and
Fatigue During Exercise in Humans: Summary and Conclusions.”
British Journal of Sports Medicine
39 (2005): 120–24.
Page 71—Fatigue is an emotion:
Noakes, T. D., J. E. Peltonen, and H. K. Rusko. “Evidence That
a Central Governor Regulates Exercise Performance During Acute Hypoxia and Hyperoxia.”
The
Journal of Experimental Biology
204 (2001): 3225–34.
Page 72—Willpower athletes don’t show exhaustion:
Job, V., C. S. Dweck, and G. M. Walton.
“Ego Depletion—Is It All in Your Head? Implicit Theories About Willpower Affect Self-
Regulation.”
Psychological Science
21 (2010): 1686–93.
Page 73—Motivation helps overcome exhaustion:
Muraven, M., and E. Slessareva. “Mechanisms
of Self-Control Failure: Motivation and Limited Resources.”
Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin
29 (2003): 894–906.
Page 76—“The Forest Game”:
Crelley, D., S. Lea, and P. Fisher. “Ego Depletion and the Tragedy
of the Commons: Self Regulation Fatigue in Public Goods Games.” Presented at the 2008 World
Meeting of the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology and the Society for
Advancement of Behavioral Economics, Rome.
Page 77—For a dramatic telling of the Easter Island tragedy,
see Diamond, J.
Collapse: How
Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
. New York: Viking, 2004.
For an economic model,
see
Bologna, M., and J. C. Flores. “A Simple Mathematical Model of Society Collapse Applied to Easter
Island.”
EPL (Europhysics Letters)
81 (2008): 480–86.
Page 78—“Choice architecture”:
Thaler, R. H., and C. R. Sunstein.
Nudge: Improving Decisions
About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
. New York: Knopf, 2008.
