Ego-depletion - Is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation

Job, Veronika; Dweck, Carol S.; Walton, Gregory M.

doi:10.1037/e634112013-142

Cited by 352 publications

(759 citation statements)

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“…For example, proactive behavior has been described as an effortful goal achievement process that consumes an individual's energy and regulatory resources . However, our finding suggests that engaging in proactive behavior may actually strengthen an individual's psychological resources because being competent can lead to a higher sense of willpower (Gailliot et al, 2007;Job, Dweck, & Walton, 2010) that supports one's actions in effecting change and leads to greater work accomplishment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Enhancing a Sense of Competence at Work by Engaging in Proactive Behavior: The Role of Proactive Personality

Deng

2017

J Happiness Stud

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Enhancing a Sense of Competence at Work by Engaging in Proactive Behavior: The Role of Proactive Personality

Deng

2017

J Happiness Stud

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“…Building on this evidence, work by Job and colleagues suggests that lay theories about the finiteness of willpower impacts on their susceptibility to self-control depletion (Job, Dweck, & Walton, 2010). Applying this rationale to the present context, if participants entertained the lay theory that praying gives strength and rejuvenates from temporary mental strain, this could explain the present pattern of results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Personal prayer counteracts self-control depletion

Friese

Schweizer

Arnoux

et al. 2014

Consciousness and Cognition

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a b s t r a c tPraying over longer time spans can foster self-control. Less is known about the immediate, short-term consequences of praying. Here we investigated the possibility that praying may counteract self-control depletion. Participants suppressed or did not suppress thoughts about a white bear before engaging in a brief period of either personal prayer or free thought. Then, all participants completed a Stroop task. As expected, thought suppression led to poorer Stroop performance in the free thought, but not in the prayer condition. This effect emerged on a dependent variable devoid of any religious or moral associations (Stroop task). Possible mediating mechanisms and directions for future research are discussed.

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“…It has been shown that the ego depletion phenomenon critically depends on whether participants believe that willpower is a limited resource (23,24). However, beliefs in a limited strength model would affect performance (or persistence) only in executive tasks; there is no reason it should favor one option over the other in economic choice, unless subjects guess the aim of the experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural mechanisms underlying the impact of daylong cognitive work on economic decisions

Blain

Hollard

Pessiglione

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

122

133

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The ability to exert self-control is key to social insertion and professional success. An influential literature in psychology has developed the theory that self-control relies on a limited common resource, so that fatigue effects might carry over from one task to the next. However, the biological nature of the putative limited resource and the existence of carry-over effects have been matters of considerable controversy. Here, we targeted the activity of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) as a common substrate for cognitive control, and we prolonged the time scale of fatigue induction by an order of magnitude. Participants performed executive control tasks known to recruit the LPFC (working memory and task-switching) over more than 6 h (an approximate workday). Fatigue effects were probed regularly by measuring impulsivity in intertemporal choices, i.e., the propensity to favor immediate rewards, which has been found to increase under LPFC inhibition. Behavioral data showed that choice impulsivity increased in a group of participants who performed hard versions of executive tasks but not in control groups who performed easy versions or enjoyed some leisure time. Functional MRI data acquired at the start, middle, and end of the day confirmed that enhancement of choice impulsivity was related to a specific decrease in the activity of an LPFC region (in the left middle frontal gyrus) that was recruited by both executive and choice tasks. Our findings demonstrate a concept of focused neural fatigue that might be naturally induced in real-life situations and have important repercussions on economic decisions.

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Ego-depletion - Is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation

Cited by 352 publications

References 0 publications

Enhancing a Sense of Competence at Work by Engaging in Proactive Behavior: The Role of Proactive Personality

Enhancing a Sense of Competence at Work by Engaging in Proactive Behavior: The Role of Proactive Personality

Personal prayer counteracts self-control depletion

Neural mechanisms underlying the impact of daylong cognitive work on economic decisions

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