title: Illusionary delusions. Willingness to exercise self-control can mask effects of glucose on self-control performance in experimental paradigms that use identical self-control tasks.
abstract: The purpose of the present article is to highlight limitations of Lange and Eggert's methodology of using identical self-control tasks in testing effects of glucose on depletion of self-control resources and self-control performance. We suggest that when participants engage in two identical self-control tasks, cognitions developed during initial act of self-control may mask the effects of glucose on self-control performance by undermining willingness to exert effort during the second act of self-control. As a consequence, glucose may increase ability to exercise self-control but participants may not want to capitalize on this "ability advantage" because they are unwilling to exercise self-control. The present article concludes that researchers who test the glucose hypothesis in the context of a depletion paradigm should employ dissimilar acts of self-control and ensure that depleted participants are sufficiently motivated to exercise self-control.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Australia. Electronic address: nikos.chatzisarantis@curtin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Nikos L D
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Chatzisarantis
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
authors.forename: Martin S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hagger
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D003702:Delusions; D019422:Dietary Sucrose / Q000494:pharmacology; D004532:Ego; D005947:Glucose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D007389:Internal-External Control; D009042:Motivation; D012107:Research Design; D012649:Self Concept; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
chemical_list: D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D005947:Glucose
keywords: Ego-depletion; Glucose; Incredibility index; Willingness to exercise self-control