Self-control - As A Limited Resource

As A Limited Resource

For more details see Ego depletion

Research by Roy Baumeister and colleagues has shown that people's ability to exert self-control depends on a strength-like resource that diminishes after use.

After participants performed a task requiring self-control, they were less able to exert self-control, even in entirely different areas; this result was replicated in over a hundred experiments.

There is also evidence that training people to accept the time delay before receiving a reward similarly enhances people's self-control. Donal Logue (1984) used a fading procedure in which participants were initially presented with a choice between two different rewards - a small one and a big one - which could be received after the same (large) time delay. On subsequent presentations of the two rewards, the time delay for the small reward was gradually reduced. The results showed that as the time delay for the small reward decreased, participants tended to choose the big reward more often than the small reward. Thus, Logue was able to condition participants to accept a large time delay in order to receive a big reward, rather than to choose not to wait in order to receive a small but immediate reward. Not only can people be trained to accept long time delays, but people's perception of the delay itself can be modified. For instance, Mischel and Ebbessen (1970) showed that a distracting entertaining task can lead people to perceive the time delay as shorter than they typically perceive it.

In sum, although there is empirical evidence that self-control is a limited mental resource, a number of studies support the notion that self-control is nevertheless a resource that can be increased through suitable "exercise".