Re:Productivity Is About Attention Management
by ghostbrainalpha on Monday April 01, 2019 @11:56AM
(#19544678)
That's very interesting. I'd love to see an experiment where people were taught THE OPPOSITE of ego depletion.
If a group of teenagers were taught that every time they exercise their willpower it becomes stronger, in a very immediate sense, would we see their self control actual improve over the course of day.
> If ego depletion does turn out to be wrong, it’s striking how seemingly well-established it became before more rigorous investigations dispelled the assumptions it rests on. The story of its rise and fall also shows how faulty assumptions about willpower are not just misleading, but can be harmful. Related studies have shown that beliefs about willpower strongly influence self-control: Research subjects who believe in ego depletion (that willpower is a limited resource) show diminishing self-control over the course of an experiment, while people who don’t believe in ego depletion are steady throughout. What’s more, when subjects are manipulated into believing in ego depletion through subtly biased questionnaires at the outset of a study, their performance suffers as well.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/against-willpower
EDIT: It appears the studies are cited at the bottom of the article.