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Recent findings by Carol Dweck and others challenge the prevalent notion that willpower is an exhaustible AND finite resource. She found that the subjects who

by mechnik 15y ago

Recent findings by Carol Dweck and others challenge the prevalent notion that willpower is an exhaustible AND finite resource. She found that the subjects who believed that exercising one's willpower strengthens it rather than depletes it actually increased their willpower. One's mindset was the key. http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/In_the_News_files/Job,%20Dweck,%20%26%20Walton,%202010.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/In_the_News_files/Job,...

ehsanu1 15y ago
Why can't you believe both? The analogy to muscles and strength training is appropriate here. The day after a workout with very heavy weights, it's hard to lift much at all. So you need to recover. The thing is that recovery is as important as the actual exercising, because it is during recovery that muscle strength increases. It may be just like that with exercising willpower: it is depleted temporarily, but given time to recover, in the long-term, willpower strengthens.
- mechnik 15y ago
  Of course one needs breaks. One interesting point is that people who view their willpower as limitless can be more productive with fewer breaks. Here is an article with comments from the researchers clarifying their findings: http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/25/willpower-can-be-an-unlimited-resource-study-says/ http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/25/willpower-can-be-an-...
tokenadult 15y ago
Thanks for the links. I'm always interested to hear about Dweck's latest research. From the submitted article, this passage is food for thought: "The disasters reveal a limitation of the muscle metaphor: certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will. The authors note that people with the highest levels of self-control are only slightly better than average at controlling their weight, and they describe disturbing experiments that confirm the old saying 'When the penis stands up, the brains get buried' (it sounds better in Yiddish)." It would be interesting to test, by methodologies proposed by Dweck or by others, just how far willpower can go in controlling the most biologically driven behaviors. There are, of course, some problems with the ethics of human experimentation involved in setting up some of these experiments in rigorous fashion.
- Jun8 15y ago
  "certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will..." From Kung Fu: When Grasshopper feels the first stirrings of love (and sexual needs), he remembers his teacher's guidance on the subject: "To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance".
- mechnik 15y ago
  I imagine the findings might be statistically significant but the proverb will generally hold. Incidentally, I googled the proverb and it does sound better (funnier) in Yiddish: Ven der putz shteht, ligt der sechel in drerd
- zcid 15y ago
  I think that the problem is that we are looking at "willpower" as a general skill when we should see it as more specific to the task. I have built up quite a bit of resistance to certain desires like food and television, but I still flounder when it comes to other areas of my life. I would be very interested in long-term studies that attempt to build willpower in just one area and then examine the individual's ability to apply that self-control to another, separate task.
  - mechnik 15y ago
    According to the OP (Pinker's book review) "He enrolled students in regimens that required them to keep track of their eating, exercise regularly, use a mouse with their weaker hand or (one that really gave them a workout) speak in complete sentences and without swearing. After several weeks, the students were more resistant to ego depletion in the lab and showed greater self-control in their lives. They smoked, drank and snacked less, watched less television, studied more and washed more dishes."
hammock 15y ago
She found that the subjects who believed that exercising one's willpower strengthens it rather than depletes it actually increased their willpower. That to me doesn't discredit the notion that willpower is an exhaustible, finite resource. It merely illuminates a neat psychological trick for increasing your willpower.
- mechnik 15y ago
  There is a belief that willpower is finite and exhaustible and nothing will change how much willpower one has, that one cannot increase one's willpower. For example, you only have 25 cents worth of willpower at a certain time and if you spent all of it on not eating a cookie you will not have any left for something else. I suppose if a "trick" increases willpower that proves that willpower is not finite and exhaustible. Clearly there are limits but one's mindset counts for performance.
  - hammock 15y ago
    My point was the fact that a resource is finite does not mean you can't grow it. If I am a child with a second-grade education- I have a finite amount of knowledge, but there are "tricks" (aka education, development) that I can do to increase my knowledge. If I have a pond in my backyard, there is a finite amount of water it can hold, but if I dredge out a few more hectares, it will store even more groundwater and its capacity has increased while still remaining finite (I cannot drink from it forever).
    - mechnik 15y ago
      I understand your point about the meaning of 'finite'. My point simply is that those who primarily viewed willpower as a limited resource, finite and exhaustible, did not perform as well as those who believed that exercising willpower increases it. It is not about the nuances of a certain word but how certain attitudes affect performance. Dweck wrote a popular book 'Mindset' where she contrasts 'fixed' mindset with 'growth' mindset. Perhaps 'fixed' makes more sense than 'finite' here. More information at http://mindsetonline.com/ http://mindsetonline.com/

by mechnik 15y ago

ehsanu1 15y ago

Why can't you believe both? The analogy to muscles and strength training is appropriate here. The day after a workout with very heavy weights, it's hard to lift much at all. So you need to recover. The thing is that recovery is as important as the actual exercising, because it is during recovery that muscle strength increases. It may be just like that with exercising willpower: it is depleted temporarily, but given time to recover, in the long-term, willpower strengthens.

mechnik 15y ago
Of course one needs breaks. One interesting point is that people who view their willpower as limitless can be more productive with fewer breaks. Here is an article with comments from the researchers clarifying their findings: http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/25/willpower-can-be-an-unlimited-resource-study-says/ http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/25/willpower-can-be-an-...

tokenadult 15y ago

Thanks for the links. I'm always interested to hear about Dweck's latest research. From the submitted article, this passage is food for thought: "The disasters reveal a limitation of the muscle metaphor: certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will. The authors note that people with the highest levels of self-control are only slightly better than average at controlling their weight, and they describe disturbing experiments that confirm the old saying 'When the penis stands up, the brains get buried' (it sounds better in Yiddish)." It would be interesting to test, by methodologies proposed by Dweck or by others, just how far willpower can go in controlling the most biologically driven behaviors. There are, of course, some problems with the ethics of human experimentation involved in setting up some of these experiments in rigorous fashion.

Jun8 15y ago
"certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will..." From Kung Fu: When Grasshopper feels the first stirrings of love (and sexual needs), he remembers his teacher's guidance on the subject: "To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance".
mechnik 15y ago
I imagine the findings might be statistically significant but the proverb will generally hold. Incidentally, I googled the proverb and it does sound better (funnier) in Yiddish: Ven der putz shteht, ligt der sechel in drerd
zcid 15y ago
I think that the problem is that we are looking at "willpower" as a general skill when we should see it as more specific to the task. I have built up quite a bit of resistance to certain desires like food and television, but I still flounder when it comes to other areas of my life. I would be very interested in long-term studies that attempt to build willpower in just one area and then examine the individual's ability to apply that self-control to another, separate task.
- mechnik 15y ago
  According to the OP (Pinker's book review) "He enrolled students in regimens that required them to keep track of their eating, exercise regularly, use a mouse with their weaker hand or (one that really gave them a workout) speak in complete sentences and without swearing. After several weeks, the students were more resistant to ego depletion in the lab and showed greater self-control in their lives. They smoked, drank and snacked less, watched less television, studied more and washed more dishes."

hammock 15y ago

She found that the subjects who believed that exercising one's willpower strengthens it rather than depletes it actually increased their willpower. That to me doesn't discredit the notion that willpower is an exhaustible, finite resource. It merely illuminates a neat psychological trick for increasing your willpower.

mechnik 15y ago
There is a belief that willpower is finite and exhaustible and nothing will change how much willpower one has, that one cannot increase one's willpower. For example, you only have 25 cents worth of willpower at a certain time and if you spent all of it on not eating a cookie you will not have any left for something else. I suppose if a "trick" increases willpower that proves that willpower is not finite and exhaustible. Clearly there are limits but one's mindset counts for performance.
- hammock 15y ago
  My point was the fact that a resource is finite does not mean you can't grow it. If I am a child with a second-grade education- I have a finite amount of knowledge, but there are "tricks" (aka education, development) that I can do to increase my knowledge. If I have a pond in my backyard, there is a finite amount of water it can hold, but if I dredge out a few more hectares, it will store even more groundwater and its capacity has increased while still remaining finite (I cannot drink from it forever).
  - mechnik 15y ago
    I understand your point about the meaning of 'finite'. My point simply is that those who primarily viewed willpower as a limited resource, finite and exhaustible, did not perform as well as those who believed that exercising willpower increases it. It is not about the nuances of a certain word but how certain attitudes affect performance. Dweck wrote a popular book 'Mindset' where she contrasts 'fixed' mindset with 'growth' mindset. Perhaps 'fixed' makes more sense than 'finite' here. More information at http://mindsetonline.com/ http://mindsetonline.com/