TY - JOUR
T1 - The sweetness of surrender
T2 - Glucose enhances self-control by signaling environmental richness
AU - Levy, Neil
PY - 2016/8/17
Y1 - 2016/8/17
N2 - According to the ego-depletion account of loss of self-control, self-control is, or depends on, a depletable resource. Advocates of this account have argued that what is depleted is actually glucose. However, there is experimental evidence that indicates that glucose replenishment is not necessary for regaining self-control, as well as theoretical reasons for thinking that it is not depleted by exercises of self-control. I suggest that glucose restores self-control not because it is a resource on which it relies, but because it serves as a signal of environment quality. I suggest that the evidence is better explained by a rival opportunity costs model of self-control than by the ego-depletion account.
AB - According to the ego-depletion account of loss of self-control, self-control is, or depends on, a depletable resource. Advocates of this account have argued that what is depleted is actually glucose. However, there is experimental evidence that indicates that glucose replenishment is not necessary for regaining self-control, as well as theoretical reasons for thinking that it is not depleted by exercises of self-control. I suggest that glucose restores self-control not because it is a resource on which it relies, but because it serves as a signal of environment quality. I suggest that the evidence is better explained by a rival opportunity costs model of self-control than by the ego-depletion account.
KW - Ego depletion
KW - glucose
KW - self-control
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84964546672&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09515089.2016.1173202
DO - 10.1080/09515089.2016.1173202
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84964546672
SN - 0951-5089
VL - 29
SP - 813
EP - 825
JO - Philosophical Psychology
JF - Philosophical Psychology
IS - 6
ER -