A Study about Self-Regulation and Depletion of Limited Resources
The authors review evidence that self-control may consume a limited resource. Exerting self-control may consume self-control strength, reducing the amount of strength available for subsequent self-control efforts. Coping with stress, regulating negative affect, and resisting temptations require self-control, and after such self-control efforts, subsequent attempts at self-control are more likely to fail. Continuous self-control efforts, such as vigilance, also degrade over time. These decrements in self-control are probably not due to negative moods or learned helplessness produced by the initial self-control attempt. These decrements appear to be specific to behaviors that involve self-control; behaviors that do not require self-control neither consume nor require self-control strength. It is concluded that the executive component of the self–in particular, inhibition–relies on a limited, consumable resource.
In such cases, refraining from the desired behavior involves more than mere passive inaction: Refraining from behaving requires an act of self-control by which the self alters its own behavioral patterns so as to prevent or inhibit its dominant response. A hungry person would normally respond to desirable food by eating it, and so a dieter requires some internal process to prevent that response. That internal process may require a form of exertion that seems more difficult and strenuous than eating. Indeed, people may sometimes give in and perform forbidden behaviors because they lack whatever strength, energy, or other inner resource that is needed to restrain themselves. keep reading…