Today's guest post comes from Sarah Roberts, Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal and blogger at Psychobabble for Normal People.
Why is it that at the beginning of January, we’re able to
keep our New Year’s Resolutions—hitting the gym regularly, drinking less
alcohol, wasting fewer hours on Facebook, following a budget or a diet—but our
willpower wears off as the month wears on? Similarly, how come at 9am, 10am,
and 1pm, we easily walk by a tantalizing plate of brownies someone left in the
lunchroom at work—but at 4pm, we give in and eat six?
Psychology researchers who study willpower have discovered the phenomenon of ego depletion, a condition of low mental energy that can lead to poor self-control and poor choices. Rather than thinking through decisions and making smart choices, the ego-depleted brain resorts to one of two strategies: a) recklessly obeying impulses, or b) avoiding decisions by sticking to the status quo.
It's not hard to see that ego depletion isn't helpful when it comes to keeping our New Year's resolutions--but what causes it?
Ego depletion
can be caused by decision fatigue
and willpower fatigue.
Decision fatigue can
happen in any situation that requires numerous or repeated decisions. For
example, imagine sitting down with a wedding planner to plan the menu for your
big day. You’ve got a budget in mind and you’re determined to stick to it. In the
beginning, you and your partner eagerly discuss each hors d’oeuvre, happily
debating the merits of sushi versus sashimi and prosciutto-wrapped melon versus
bacon-wrapped shrimp; but after a long day during which you choose from hundreds
of options, you reach a state of ego depletion via decision fatigue. So when
the wedding planner starts talking cake, you forget about your budget and
impulsively choose the insanely expensive cupcake tower the planner suggests—even
though it puts you way over budget. And when you get home that night and have
to decide what to make for dinner, you’re liable to chuck your New Year’s
resolution to eat less fast food and default to your I-don’t-feel-like-cooking
standard of ordering pizza.
Willpower fatigue occurs when we have to exert repeated or prolonged self-control. For example, say you resolved to cut back on drinking and you’re attending a wedding with an open bar and non-stop refills: you're able to turn down champagne the first few times it's offered, but by midnight, you're in a state of ego depletion from exerting prolonged will power, and you end up grabbing and chugging the next three glasses that are offered. Ego depletion via willpower fatigue explains why, after months of resisting your gorgeous, flirtatious, and available colleague, one night you give in and cheat on your partner. And it explains why we successfully avoid the lunchroom brownies in the morning, but end up bingeing in the late afternoon. (Ego depletion via low blood sugar may also be a factor in the latter case).
Willpower fatigue occurs when we have to exert repeated or prolonged self-control. For example, say you resolved to cut back on drinking and you’re attending a wedding with an open bar and non-stop refills: you're able to turn down champagne the first few times it's offered, but by midnight, you're in a state of ego depletion from exerting prolonged will power, and you end up grabbing and chugging the next three glasses that are offered. Ego depletion via willpower fatigue explains why, after months of resisting your gorgeous, flirtatious, and available colleague, one night you give in and cheat on your partner. And it explains why we successfully avoid the lunchroom brownies in the morning, but end up bingeing in the late afternoon. (Ego depletion via low blood sugar may also be a factor in the latter case).
Ego depletion
via decision fatigue and willpower fatigue can help explain why we tend to
slide on our New Year’s Resolutions partway through January, or to lapse in our
self-control at the end of a long day. The good news is that resolution-thwarting
ego depletion can be avoided and self-control and good decision-making
preserved.
To prevent
decision fatigue, avoid making too many decisions at once, and organize your
day so that some of your decisions are pre-made. For example, bring your lunch
so you don’t have to decide whether or not to order a salad or a burger. If you
have an important decision-making meeting at work in the morning, don’t
schedule a meeting with the wedding planner the same afternoon.
To prevent willpower
fatigue, avoid situations that require prolonged willpower. If you don’t want
to drink at the wedding, tell the waiters you don’t drink so they won't keep
offering to fill your glass. If you have a writing deadline, turn off your
wireless access for a few hours so you don’t have to keep resisting the urge to
procrastinate on Facebook. If you want to eat less, don’t go to all-you-can-eat
buffets.
Another way to
avoid ego depletion via willpower fatigue or decision fatigue is to have a
strict and clear rule. Whereas willpower and decisions are invoked in the
moment, rules are created in advance and based on a rationale. So say you’ve
resolved to cut back on drinking in general, but you’re out with friends after
work on Thursday. The second you're faced with a glass of wine, willpower pits
the force of your desire to drink against the force of your determination to
resist, creating discomfort. In contrast to a vague resolution to drink
less, say you have a firm rule to drink alcohol only on weekends. Your rule
eliminates the need for willpower because alcohol on a Thursday is not even an
option. For another example, say your rule is that you work out every Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday before work. If this is your established and inflexible rule,
you don’t have to use willpower to get out of bed when your alarm rings, nor do
you waste your decision-making reserves; the decision is pre-made so you just
hop out of bed.
Ego depletion is the enemy of New Year’s Resolutions, but smart
planning and clear rules can help us avoid it. By conserving willpower, making
decisions in advance, or creating a rule, we increase our ability to get to the
gym, ignore Facebook, and stick to a budget or a diet.
Let us know if this works for you!
Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (17), 6889-6892 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1018033108
Hofmann, W., Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2012). What people desire, feel conflicted about, and try to resist in everyday life. Psychological Science, 23, 582-588.
Hofmann, W., Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2012). What people desire, feel conflicted about, and try to resist in everyday life. Psychological Science, 23, 582-588.
Sarah Roberts is a Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal and a mindfulness coach at the MindSpace Clinic. She blogs about mindfulness and other psych-related topics at Psychobabble for Normal People. You can find her previous guest post for PYM here.
I agree with the fact that we all make mistakes on our New Year's resolutions. Old habits can easily over shadow our will to overcome those that we try to cure, such as, right vs. wrong, or our strong desire to do something about it. This fits in with the idea of biological perspective which studies on the brain and the nervous systems. It's all about how we react to the situations we're in that determines our outcome of our resolutions. Planning in advance, allows the brain to decide for you, before the decision ever has to be made at that exact moment. Influences all around us has a great impact on our decisions, and with biological studies being made everyday, can greatly help us understand what is going on in our minds and in our own lives. Great piece on the study of the human brain and how we make decisions based on the influences around us.
ReplyDelete