Ego Depletion - The Ultimate Secret of Willpower?

in sirwinchester •  8 years ago  (edited)

Willpower is something that most people would like to increase.
Willpower is what keeps us going, our drive, our dedication to achieve a goal or finish a task.

But often enough, we find ourselves struggling with it, fighting against our weaker inner self and ultimately giving up.

So why is that? Have you ever heard of the term Ego Depletion? 

Ego Depletion basically means that we only have a certain amount of willpower and when that's used up, we turn into couch potatoes.

Sounds like an interesting theory, but let's look at the scientific proof:
In 1998, a study called "Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a limited resource?" tested exactly this.

Two different groups of participants were advised to skip a meal and don't eat 3 hours before the experiment (so they were hungry at the time).
Then, all the participants were sat in a room that was filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies, and on each table, they prepared a plate with radishes and a plate filled with chocolate.
One group of participants only ate  radishes, while having to resist the tempting smell and sight of chocolate. So their willpower was tested in 2 factors - having to eat something they didn't particularly enjoy, and resisting to eat something else.
The other group only ate the chocolate.
After that, both groups were asked to finish an unsolvable riddle.

The ones that had to eat the radish and already depleted their willpower gave up twice as fast!

After the experiments, the participants filled out some questionnaires.
And these were the results:

  • The ones that ate the radish felt more tired after the experiment than the other group
  • When the chocolate eaters felt like quitting the puzzle, they pushed themselves to keep going a little longer.
  • When the radish eaters felt like quitting the puzzle, they quit almost immediately


These results provide initial support for the hypothesis of ego depletion.
Resisting temptation seems to have produced a psychic cost, in the sense that afterward participants were more inclined to give up easily in the face of frustration.
It was not that eating chocolate improved performance. Rather, wanting chocolate but eating radishes instead, especially under circumstances in which it would seemingly be easy and safe to snitch some chocolates, seems to have consumed some resource and therefore left people less able to persist at the puzzles.

- Quote from the research study paper

Now if we would apply the results of this study to real life, the result would be to evolve and complete your tasks in baby steps.
It would mean that it would be counter-productive for you try changing several bad habits at the same time.

But there's also a controversy about this theory.

There have also been studies that did not have any proof of Ego Depletion in their results.
It's a highly controverse topic, and there are lots of different opinions about it.

One thing is for sure - You are always tricked by your brain.

Someone who believes their willpower is limited will use that as an excuse to slack off or take a break sometimes, while someone who believes their willpower is unlimited might just keep going - and will end up achieving more in the end. 





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Is Ego the same as Will?

I agree with @mindhunter - it totally depends on yourself!
But in this experiment, ego is = will .

I'd love to see you do a post where spirit = will; like the light touch of the Dalai Lama for example ;)

Will controlled by spiritual means or egotistical means. The choice is yours?

i have experienced ego depletion, personally. this n=1 is not useful for statistical analysis but is useful for my understanding of myself. i would love to see a better controlled experiment as i think the alkaloids and fats contained in the chocolate have been demonstrated to have superior stimulating and energy sustaining effects as compared to something such as a radish. great post. this is information more people can use. thank you.

:)
Like on song

"....I am immortal,
I have inside me blood of kings,
I have no rival,
No man can be my equal,
Take me to the future of your world..."

such a fascinating theory! I think it's pretty reasonable

yes I think so too!

wow, what an interesting topic!
love how much effort you put into your posts

glad that you liked it, I enjoy creating these posts as well!

this is a great example for a steemit post -
interesting topic, and awesome original images that go along with it!

keep it up sir

thank you for your kind words!

that first experiment is so interesting. Although I have not experienced it myself, it sounds logical, and the results speak for themselves

Yes I'm the same, I found the theory to be very interesting and I could imagine that this is really how our mind works!

posts like this are the reason you're rocking on steemit and your hashtag is trending!

thank you, I appreciate that!

Good job! Removing self makes a way for the will to go forward.

thank you! and that's very true

I like that you mentioned the controversy around this as well, not just the studies that proved it. It's a topic that scientists are still discussing about!

it's nothing that's set in stone, but I think the theory behind it is very fascinating and everybody can decide for themselves what they want to do with that information!

In my experience, if I've been in sugar burning mode, which is what most every American and probably person in the world is in, the results of the experiment hold mostly true.

However, if I am in fat burning mode, or Ketosis, which I try to stay in all the time now, these results of this experiment are inconsistent with my experience.

When your body is running on glucose, you're very sugar sensitive because it's not healthy for your body to have high blood sugar at any given time, so it gets rid of it, and your body doesn't make glucose, so it's dependent on recently consumed fuel. But if your body is running on ketones, it doesn't just get depleted, it continues to turn fat into ketones and your brain doesn't ever feel the imminent need for more fuel.

the result would be to evolve and complete your tasks in baby steps.

I'll take this as an inspiration. I'm not a very patient person, in fact I've often wished I could buy that trait just to acquire it. I easily get frustrated but I'm a go getter I don't easily give up.
I'll use this as a self reminder whenever I get frustrated to help me to always think of getting to "finish".
Thank you @sirwinchester

A very interesting theory! It could be evidence of how each of us gives off a certain energy, when we feel an emotion or a desire to do something it is merely a form of energy within ourselves that is being released. In this case of course will power. Very interesting indeed!

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I will bookmark this, very interesting topic choice!

thanks, glad you enjoyed it!