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Beliefs about willpower determine the impact of glucose on self-control

Job, Veronika; Walton, Gregory M.; Bernecker, Katharina; Dweck, Carol S. (2013). Beliefs about willpower determine the impact of glucose on self-control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (37), pp. 14837-14842. 10.1073/pnas.1313475110

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Past research found that the ingestion of glucose can enhance self-control. It has been widely assumed that basic physiological processes underlie this effect. We hypothesized that the effect of glucose also depends on people’s theories about willpower. Three experiments, both measuring (experiment 1) and manipulating (experiments 2 and 3) theories about willpower, showed that, following a demanding task, only people who view willpower as limited and easily depleted (a limited resource theory) exhibited improved self-control after sugar consumption. In contrast, people who view willpower as plentiful (a nonlimited resource theory) showed no benefits from glucose—they exhibited high levels of self-control performance with or without sugar boosts. Additionally, creating beliefs about glucose ingestion (experiment 3) did not have the same effect as ingesting glucose for those with a limited resource theory. We suggest that the belief that willpower is limited sensitizes people to cues about their available resources including physiological cues, making them dependent on glucose boosts for high self-control performance.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

PHBern Contributor:

Bernecker, Katharina

Language:

English

Submitter:

Sibylle Blanchard

Date Deposited:

27 May 2024 12:19

Last Modified:

29 May 2024 23:06

Publisher DOI:

10.1073/pnas.1313475110

PHBern DOI:

10.57694/7417

URI:

https://phrepo.phbern.ch/id/eprint/7417

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