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Self-control helps us overcome temptation, and we often rely on other people to boost our own self-control abilities. Find out when this works, and when other people can actually hurt our own self-control. Read More
Enlightening piece. I know
Enlightening piece. I know the focal point of your piece is not about the sustenance of self-control per se. However, you piqued my curiosity about the theory of my self-control being depleted with each use. If that is so, how do I then maintain self-control over certain undesirable activities?
I am trying to, at this very moment, work on having a healthier diet and also controlling my expenditure. Will I get severely burned out by the end of the entire exercise? Is that why people who go on extreme diets eventually give in by indulging in the most "sinful" items?
How do you then develop healthier or good habits through avoiding certain undesirable items/activities without burning out?
It's a really good question.
It's a really good question. Research does suggest that self-control can be limited and therefore depletable. As you said, this is one reason why people on diets might indulge in other forms of temptation (doesn't have to be food-related). However, you can also build self-control over time through practice. So it is probably dangerous to try committing to 2 difficult self-control activities at the same time. Presumably, if you can practice one (like diet) until you find it easier, moving onto a second issue (like finances) shouldn't create much of a self-control problem for the first issue. One thing at a time might be the best advice.
Coordinating self-control
Couldn't that experiment you described just as easily illustrate the effects of empathy on one's ability to exercise self-control? Isn't it possible that the more empathetic person is more depeleted of the psychological (or would it be neurological?) resources needed to exercise self-control because the part(s) of the brain (or neurological mechanisms) that influences/controls both empathy and self-control are the same, and that there's only so much of those resources to go around?
Certainly empathy can play a
Certainly empathy can play a role here. Empathy may lead people to be more likely to mentally simulate another person's perspective. More empathetic people would be more likely to be depleted in this case. However, neuroscience research has identified the brain regions associated with both self-control and empathy (generally), and they are not the same. Therefore, it is unlikely that the results are simply a general neural resource depletion effect.
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