The Radish and Cookie Test
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Staten Island, NY Posted: 6/5/2017 1:00:00 AM
Can you run out of willpower? Scientists say yes.
A few years ago, a team of scientist led by Roy Baumeister did a study to determine if willpower was something that was finite, or inexhaustible.
They took two groups of people for the study. Both groups were given a plate of radishes and a plate of cookies. The first group was told they could eat all the radishes they wanted, but they were not allowed to eat the cookies. The second group was told they could eat whatever they wanted without limits.
After a while, the groups were given a series of unsolvable math problems and told they could give up whenever they wanted. The group that had no restrictions spent an average of 20 minutes before giving up, but the group that had to use their willpower to keep from eating the cookies gave up in about 8 minutes. Clearly, they had exhausted their willpower, which proves it's finite and can be depleted.
This pattern repeated itself in a variety of similar experiments where participants were shown a series of movies. One group was asked to refrain from laughing or being emotional. Once again, the group that needed to use their willpower to refrain from reacting to the movies had much more willpower in subsequent tests than those who were not asked to withhold their emotions.
This is partially due to the fact that brain activity is like a muscle. As you use it, it depletes fuel in the form of glucose. In fact, although the brain accounts for a little as 5% of the body's mass, it consumes over 20% of glucose.
Thankfully, this means you can do something about it. You can exercise your willpower like a muscle to make it stronger, and you can even conserve your willpower at times when you know you'll need it. For example, if you're about to take a test or do something that will require a lot of decision making, it would be a good idea to give yourself a little extra glucose, and try to avoid expending energy on making unrelated decisions. Even little things like deciding what to wear the night before a big day can save your brainpower for more important decisions in the morning.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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