Metaphysics & Psychology

Is willpower a finite resource ?

By T.K. Randall
October 8, 2012 ·  19 comments

Image Credit: CC 2.5 Rainer Zenz Based at Florida State University, Baumeister set out to investigate this concept by conducting an experiment involving several students and a plate of newly baked chocolate-chip cookies. He sat some of the students down in front of the plate and asked them not to eat any for a period of time while a second group were permitted to snack on them. He then gave all the students a series of difficult puzzles to solve.

The results indicated that the students who had been tasked with resisting the cookies had to bow out of the puzzle solving a lot sooner than those who had been allowed to eat them. Baumeister maintains that this indicates that willpower is a finite resource that can be depleted and it should therefore be reserved as much as possible for when it is needed the most.[!gad]Based at Florida State University, Baumeister set out to investigate this concept by conducting an experiment involving several students and a plate of newly baked chocolate-chip cookies. He sat some of the students down in front of the plate and asked them not to eat any for a period of time while a second group were permitted to snack on them. He then gave all the students a series of difficult puzzles to solve.

The results indicated that the students who had been tasked with resisting the cookies had to bow out of the puzzle solving a lot sooner than those who had been allowed to eat them. Baumeister maintains that this indicates that willpower is a finite resource that can be depleted and it should therefore be reserved as much as possible for when it is needed the most.

Source: Wired | Comments (19)

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