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What you need to know about willpower: The psychological science of self-control

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Explore how scientific research by psychologists can inform our professional lives, family and community relationships, emotional wellness, and more.

Further reading

Baumeister, R., & Tierney, J. (2011) Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. New York: Penguin Press.

Duckworth, A. (2011). The significance of self-control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 2639–2640.

Duckworth, A., & Seligman, M. (2005). Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance in adolescents. Psychological Science, 16, 939–944.

Moffitt, T., et al. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 2693–2698.

Tangney, J., Baumeister, R., & Boone, A.L. (2004). High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality, 72, 271–324.

Delaying gratification

More than 40 years ago, Walter Mischel, PhD, a psychologist now at Columbia University, explored self-control in children with a simple but effective test. His experiments using the “marshmallow test,” as it came to be known, laid the groundwork for the modern study of self-control.

Mischel and his colleagues presented a preschooler with a plate of treats such as marshmallows. The child was then told that the researcher had to leave the room for a few minutes, but not before giving the child a simple choice. If the child waited until the researcher returned, she could have two marshmallows. If the child simply couldn’t wait, she could ring a bell and the researcher would come back immediately, but she would be allowed to eat only one marshmallow.

In children as well as adults, willpower can be thought of as a basic ability to delay gratification. Preschoolers with good self-control sacrifice the immediate pleasure of a chewy marshmallow in order to indulge in two marshmallows at some later point. Ex-smokers forfeit the enjoyment of a cigarette in order to experience good health and avoid an increased risk of lung cancer in the future. Shoppers resist splurging at the mall so they can save for a comfortable retirement. And so on.

The marshmallow experiments eventually led Mischel and his colleagues to develop a framework to explain our ability to delay gratification. He proposed what he calls a “hot-and-cool” system to explain why willpower succeeds or fails.

The cool system is cognitive in nature. It’s essentially a thinking system, incorporating knowledge about sensations, feelings, actions and goals—reminding yourself, for instance, why you shouldn’t eat the marshmallow. While the cool system is reflective, the hot system is impulsive and emotional. The hot system is responsible for quick, reflexive responses to certain triggers—such as popping the marshmallow into your mouth without thinking of the long-term implications. If this framework were a cartoon, the cool system would be the angel on your shoulder, and the hot system the devil.

When willpower fails, exposure to a “hot” stimulus essentially overrides the cool system, leading to impulsive actions. Some people, it seems, may be more or less susceptible to hot triggers. And that susceptibility to emotional responses may influence their behavior throughout life, as Mischel discovered when he revisited his marshmallow-test subjects as adolescents. He found that teenagers who had waited longer for the marshmallows as preschoolers were more likely to score higher on the SAT, and their parents were more likely to rate them as having a greater ability to plan, handle stress, respond to reason, exhibit self-control in frustrating situations, and concentrate without becoming distracted.

As it turns out, the marshmallow study didn’t end there. Recently, B.J. Casey, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, along with Mischel, Yuichi Shoda, PhD, of the University of Washington, and other colleagues tracked down 59 subjects, now in their 40s, who had participated in the marshmallow experiments as children. The researchers tested the subjects’ willpower strength with a laboratory task known to demonstrate self-control in adults.

Amazingly, the subjects’ willpower differences had largely held up over four decades. In general, children who were less successful at resisting the marshmallow all those years ago did more poorly on the self-control task as adults. An individual’s sensitivity to so-called hot stimuli, it seems, may persist throughout his or her lifetime.

Additionally, Casey and her colleagues examined brain activity in some subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging. When presented with tempting stimuli, individuals with low self-control showed brain patterns that differed from those with high self-control. The researchers found that the prefrontal cortex (a region that controls executive functions, such as making choices) was more active in subjects with higher self-control. And the ventral striatum (a region thought to process desires and rewards) showed boosted activity in those with lower self-control.

Research has yet to fully explain why some people are more sensitive to emotional triggers and temptations, and whether these patterns might be corrected. However, the recent findings offer an intriguing neurobiological basis for the push and pull of temptation.

Download a print version of “Delaying Gratification” (PDF, 73KB)

Further reading

Casey, B. J., et al. (2011). Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 1498–5003.

Metcalfe J., & Mischel, W. (1999). A hot/cool system analysis of delay of gratification: dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106, 3–19.

Mischel, M. et al. (1989). Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244, 933–938.

Mischel, M., & Ayduk, O. (2004). Willpower in a cognitive-affective processing system: the dynamics of delay of gratification. In R.F. Baumeister & K.D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications New York, NY: Guildford Press.

Nordgren, L., & Chou, E. (2011). The push and pull of temptation: the bidirectional influence of temptation on self-control. Psychological Science, 22, 1386–1390.

Is willpower a limited resource?

Although Walter Mischel’s hot-cool framework may explain our ability to delay gratification, another theory known as willpower depletion has emerged to explain what happens after we’ve resisted temptation after temptation. Every day, in one form or another, you exert willpower. You resist the urge to surf the web instead of finishing your expense report. You reach for a salad when you’re craving a burger. You bite your tongue when you’d like to make a snide remark. Yet a growing body of research shows that resisting repeated temptations takes a mental toll. Some experts liken willpower to a muscle that can get fatigued from overuse.

Some of the earliest evidence of this effect came from the lab of Roy Baumeister. In one early study, he brought subjects into a room filled with the aroma of fresh-baked cookies. The table before them held a plate of the cookies and a bowl of radishes. Some subjects were asked to sample the cookies, while others were asked to eat the radishes. Afterward, they were given 30 minutes to complete a difficult geometric puzzle.

Baumeister and his colleagues found that people who ate radishes (and therefore resisted the enticing cookies) gave up on the puzzle after about eight minutes, while the lucky cookie-eaters persevered for nearly 19 minutes, on average. Drawing on willpower to resist the cookies, it seemed, drained the subjects’ self-control for subsequent situations.

Since that work was published in 1998, numerous studies have built a case for willpower depletion, or ego depletion, as some experts call it. In one example, volunteers asked to suppress their feelings as they viewed an emotional movie gave up sooner on a test of physical stamina than did volunteers who watched the film and reacted normally. In another, people who actively suppressed certain thoughts were less able to stifle their laughter in a follow-up test designed to make them giggle.

Unfortunately, depleting events are all too common. If you’ve ever willed yourself to be diplomatic with an infuriating colleague or forced a smile through your in-laws’ extended visit, you’ve probably discovered that social interactions often demand self-control. Indeed, research shows that interacting with others and maintaining relationships can deplete willpower. In one demonstration of that effect, Kathleen Vohs, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, and her colleagues found that people asked to convince a hostile audience that they were likable suffered more depletion than people who were simply asked to act naturally before the audience.

Dealing with a hostile audience (or your in-laws) may feel exhausting, but depletion is not simply a matter of being tired, as Vohs demonstrated. She subjected half of her study subjects to 24 hours of sleep deprivation before asking them to suppress their emotional reactions to a film clip. Then she tested the subjects’ self-control strength. To her surprise, she found that the subjects who’d been up all night were no more likely to become willpower-depleted than those who’d spent the night snug in their beds.

If depletion isn’t physical fatigue, what is it? Recent investigations have found a number of possible mechanisms for willpower depletion, including some at a biological level. Scientists at the University of Toronto found that people whose willpower was depleted by self-control tasks showed decreased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved with cognition. When your willpower has been tested, your brain may actually function differently.

Other evidence suggests that willpower-depleted individuals might literally be low on fuel. The brain is a high-energy organ, powered by a steady supply of glucose (blood sugar). Some researchers have proposed that brain cells working hard to maintain self-control consume glucose faster than it can be replenished. In a study lending support to this idea, obedient dogs made to resist temptation had lower blood-glucose levels than dogs who did not exert self-control.

Studies in humans have found similar patterns. Human subjects who exerted willpower in lab tasks had lower glucose levels than control subjects who weren’t asked to draw on their self-control. Furthermore, restoring glucose appears to help reboot run-down willpower. One study, for example, found that drinking sugar-sweetened lemonade restored willpower strength in depleted individuals, while drinking sugar-free lemonade did not.

Yet evidence also suggests that willpower depletion can be kept in check by your beliefs and attitudes. Mark Muraven, PhD, of the University at Albany, and colleagues found that people who felt compelled to exert self-control (in order to please others, for example) were more easily depleted than people who were driven by their own internal goals and desires. When it comes to willpower, those who are in touch with themselves may be better off than their people-pleasing counterparts.

Muraven, Baumeister, and their colleagues also explored the effects of mood. By lifting their subjects’ spirits with comedy videos and surprise gifts, they demonstrated that a good mood can overcome some of the willpower-depletion effects normally seen after exercising self-control.

Other research suggests that a person’s basic beliefs about willpower may be important. A 2010 study by Stanford University researcher Veronika Job, PhD, and colleagues found that individuals who thought willpower was a limited resource were subject to having their willpower depleted. But people who did not believe willpower was easily exhaustible did not show signs of depletion after exerting self-control.

In a second component of that study, the researchers manipulated volunteers’ beliefs about willpower by asking them to fill out subtly biased questionnaires. The volunteers who had been led to believe that willpower was a limited resource showed signs of ego depletion, while those who had been led to believe that willpower was not limited showed no signs of dwindling self-control.

So is willpower a limited resource? Proponents of this idea point to a large and robust body of supporting evidence that has accumulated over the last decade. They argue that factors such as mood and belief may only buffer the effects of willpower depletion in its earliest stages. Still, further research is needed to explore how beliefs, moods and attitudes might affect one’s ability to resist temptation.

Download a print version of “Is Willpower a Limited Resource?” (PDF, 106KB)

Further reading

Baumeister, et al. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1252–1265.

Baumeister, et al. (2007). The strength model of self-control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 351–355.

Gailliot, M., et al. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 325–336.

Inzlicht, M., & Gutsell, J. (2007). Running on empty: Neural signals for self-control failure. Psychological Science, 18, 933–937.

Job, V., et al. (2010). Ego depletion—Is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation. Psychological Science, 21, 1686–1693.

Martijn, C., et al. (2002). Getting a grip on ourselves: Challenging expectancies about loss of energy after self-control. Social Cognition, 20, 441–460.

Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle? Psychological Bulletin, 126, 247–259.

Muraven, M. (in press). Ego-depletion: Theory and evidence. In R.M. Ryan (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Motivation Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Muraven, M., et al. (2008). Helpful self-control: Autonomy support, vitality, and depletion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 573–585.

Tice, D., et al. (2007). Restoring the self: Positive affect helps improve self-regulation following ego depletion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 379–384.

Vohs, K., et al. (2011). Ego depletion is not just fatigue: Evidence from a total sleep deprivation experiment. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 166–173.

Vohs, K., et al. (2005). Self-regulation and self-presentation: Regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and effortful self-presentation depletes regulatory resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 632–657.

Willpower and healthy behaviors

Every day, you make decisions to resist impulses in the quest for a healthier, happier life. Whether it’s turning down a second helping of mashed potatoes, dragging yourself to the gym, forgoing another round of cocktails, or resisting the urge to skip the Monday morning meeting, your will is tested on a near-constant basis.

Limited willpower is often cited as a primary roadblock to maintaining a healthy weight, and research supports this idea. A study by Eli Tsukayama at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues found, for example, that children with better self-control were less likely to become overweight as they transitioned to adolescence, thanks to their ability to control impulses and delay gratification.

However, as described in the previous section, resisting those impulses may diminish one’s strength to withstand the next temptation. Todd Heatherton, PhD, of Dartmouth College, and Kathleen Vohs demonstrated this in a study in which they offered dieting students ice cream after they’d watched a sad film. Some of the subjects had watched normally, while others were instructed to stifle their emotional reactions, an effort that required willpower.

The researchers found that dieters who tapped into their willpower to squelch their feelings ate considerably more ice cream than did dieters who were free to respond emotionally to the movie.

People often blame bad moods for so-called “emotional eating.” But Heatherton and Vohs found that their subjects’ emotional states didn’t influence how much ice cream they ate. In other words, willpower depletion was more important than mood in determining why the subjects indulged.

The reasons that someone is dieting may also play a role. As the previous section described, Muraven and colleagues found that your beliefs and attitudes may buffer you from the effects of depletion. In one example of this idea, he asked volunteers to resist eating from a plate of cookies placed before them. Then he tested their self-control strength by having them squeeze an exercise handgrip for as long as they could.

He found that the people who chose not to eat the cookies for internal reasons (such as enjoying the challenge of resisting the treats) showed better self-control in the handgrip test than did people who resisted for external reasons (such as wanting to please the experimenter).

It’s clear that willpower is a necessary component of healthy eating. In an environment where unhealthy (and mouthwatering) food choices are everywhere, resisting temptation is likely to deplete willpower, chipping away at the resolve of even highly motivated dieters. Yet overeating behaviors are complex, with numerous psychological and neurological underpinnings. As a result, the role of willpower is somewhat contentious when discussing treatments for obesity.

Some experts believe that stressing self-control and personal choice stigmatizes people—and is unlikely to motivate them to lose weight. Health practitioners should avoid emphasizing willpower, such experts argue, and focus on minimizing the impact of the environment on eating behavior.

After all, when it comes to our modern environment, resisting the urge to overeat can be an enormous challenge. We’re bombarded with ads for high-calorie treats. Fast, cheap, processed food is readily available 24 hours a day, seven days a week—and often costs less than healthier options.

Still, both willpower and the environment play a role in food-related choices. Better understanding of both elements will improve options for individuals and health practitioners wrestling with obesity.

Willpower plays a role in other healthy lifestyle choices as well, including the use and abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs. Developing good self-control as children may prevent substance abuse problems in teenagers and adults, according to Kevin King, PhD, of the University of Washington.

King and his colleagues explored self-control in adolescents as they progressed from grades 6 to 11. They found that the adolescents who had more self-control problems in sixth grade—such as talking out of turn in class or acting without thinking—were more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana as high school juniors.

Unsurprisingly, willpower also appears to be important in curbing alcohol use, as Muraven demonstrated in several studies. In one experiment, he found that social drinkers who exercised self-control in a lab setting went on to drink more alcohol in a supposed “taste test” than subjects who didn’t previously dip into their self-control stockpiles.

In another study, he found that on days when underage social drinkers found themselves having to exert more self-control than usual, they were more likely to violate their own self-imposed drinking limits. This finding provides more evidence that exerting willpower in one sphere can undermine your capacity to resist temptations in other, unrelated areas of life.

Understanding the role of willpower is likely to be important for developing effective treatments for addiction and in helping guide people toward making healthy choices, such as eating well, exercising, and avoiding illicit substances. Research on willpower already offers suggestions for sticking with healthy behaviors. Strategies for managing willpower will be discussed in the final section of this report.

Download a print version of “Willpower and Healthy Behaviors” (PDF, 248KB)

Further reading

Appelhans, B., et al. (2011). Time to abandon the notion of personal choice in dietary counseling for obesity? Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 111, 1130–1136.

King, K., et al. (2011). Changes in self-control problems and attention problems during middle school predict alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use during high school. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25, 69–79.

Muraen, M. (2008). Autonomous self-control is less depleting. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 763–770.

Muraven, M., & Shmueli, D. (2006). The self-control costs of fighting the temptation to drink. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 20, 154–160.

Muraven, M., et al. (2005). Daily fluctuations in self-control demands and alcohol intake. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19, 140–147.

Muraven, M., et al. (2002). Self-control and alcohol restraint: An initial application of the self-control strength model. Psychology of Additive Behaviors, 16, 113–120.

Tsukayama, E., et al. (2010). Self-control as a protective factor against overweight status in the transition from childhood to adolescence. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 164, 631–635.

Vohs, K., & Heatherton, T. (2000). Self-regulatory failure: A resource-depletion approach. Psychological Science, 11, 249–254.

Willpower, poverty, and financial decision-making

Whether you’re lured by new shoes or a new car, the temptation to buy is an all-too-familiar test of will. Just as unhealthy food choices have become ubiquitous, so too have opportunities for impulse spending. ATMs are everywhere, and online shopping means you can burn through your savings without ever leaving the house. And as in other areas of life, from overeating to resisting alcohol, people’s purchasing behavior has been shown to be subject to willpower depletion.

Kathleen Vohs and Ronald Faber, a professor of mass communication at the University of Minnesota, studied willpower depletion and impulse buying. They showed volunteers a silent film clip in which a series of common one-syllable words appeared across the bottom of the screen. Some of the participants were instructed to actively ignore the words, a task known to require self-control. Afterward, participants paged through product listings for objects such as watches and cars and then reported how much they’d be willing to pay for each item. Subjects who had exerted self-control in the video task were willing to spend considerably more—$30,037, on average, versus $22,789 for participants whose self-control hadn’t been run down.

In a second experiment, Vohs and Faber tested subjects’ actual spending behavior by presenting them with an opportunity to purchase low-cost items such as mugs and playing cards. Those who had previously exerted self-control in a lab exercise reported experiencing more temptation to buy. And in fact they purchased a larger number of items and spent a greater amount of money than did participants who hadn’t performed the willpower-draining task.

Financial decision-making may be even more challenging for people living in poverty. Princeton University doctoral candidate Dean Spears conducted a series of experiments in rural India to explore the link between willpower strength and poverty. In one, he visited two villages, one richer and one poorer, and offered people a chance to purchase a popular brand of body soap at a significantly discounted price. The soap was a good deal, but it still represented a potentially difficult financial decision for individuals living in poverty.

Before and after offering the soap was offered, the experimenters asked the participants to squeeze an exercise handgrip, a common test of self-control strength. Spears found that richer participants squeezed the handgrip for about the same amount of time before and after the soap-purchasing opportunity. Poorer participants, though, squeezed for a significantly shorter duration the second time around. Their willpower strength, he concluded, had been run down by their difficult financial decision-making.

In another study, Spears turned his attention to a cross-section of American shoppers. All shoppers, rich and poor, engage in economic decision-making. But financial decisions that are quick and easy for richer shoppers are likely to represent difficult tests of self-control among people who are financially insecure.

Therefore, poorer shoppers, Spears reasoned, would likely experience a greater depletion of their willpower as they faced repeated, difficult financial decisions. And in fact, he found that poorer individuals were considerably more likely to consume food and drink while shopping than were richer individuals—an indicator that financial decision-making had run down their self-control stockpiles.

There is a silver lining to this research. If people in poverty are more prone to willpower depletion, then perhaps reducing the number of difficult decisions they must make can help maintain their stores of self-control for future decisions. Harvard Business School economist Nava Ashraf, PhD, and colleagues demonstrated that effect among bank customers in the Philippines. They offered the customers a chance to open individual savings accounts—with a catch. The customers could withdraw their funds only after they’d reached a target date or target savings amount that they themselves had chosen. After a year, participants who enrolled in the accounts saved 82% more than customers in a control group who had not opened the special accounts. Eliminating the decision of whether to spend or save helped customers avoid willpower failure.

Together these findings suggest that people at the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum may be particularly vulnerable to a breakdown of their willpower resources. It’s not that the poor have less willpower than the rich, experts conclude. Rather, for people living in poverty, every decision—even whether to buy soap—requires self control, and dips into their limited pool of willpower.

Download a print version of “Willpower, Poverty and Financial Decision-Making” (PDF, 80KB)

Further reading

Ashraf, N., et al. (2006). Tying Odysseus to the mast: evidence from a commitment savings product in the Philippines. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121,635–672.

Baumeister, R., et al. (2007). Free will in consumer behavior: self-control, ego depletion, and choice. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 18, 4–13.

Spears, D. (2010). Economic decision-making in poverty depletes behavioral control (Working Paper No. 213). Retrieved from Center for Policy Studies, Princeton University website

Vohs, K., Baumeister, R., & Tice, D. (2006). Self-regulation: goals, consumption, and choices. In C. P. Haugtvedt, P. Herr, & F. Kardes (Eds.), Handbook of Consumer Psychology

Vohs, K., & Faber, R., (2007). Spent resources: self-regulatory availability affects impulse buying. Journal of Consumer Research, 33, 537–547.

Strengthening self-control

A large body of research has been developed in recent years to explain many facets of willpower. Most of the researchers exploring self-control do so with an obvious goal in mind: How can willpower be strengthened? If willpower is truly a limited resource, as the research suggests, what can be done to conserve it?

Avoiding temptation is one effective tactic for maintaining self-control. In Walter Mischel’s marshmallow study (in which preschool children had the choice between eating one marshmallow immediately or waiting an unspecified amount of time for two marshmallows), the children who stared directly at the treat were less likely to resist it than were kids who closed their eyes, turned away, or otherwise distracted themselves.

The “out of sight, out of mind” principle applies to adults, too. One recent study, for instance, found office workers who kept candy in a desk drawer indulged less than when they kept the candy on top of their desks, in plain sight.

Another helpful tactic for improving self-control is a technique that psychologists call an “implementation intention.” Usually these intentions take the form of “if-then” statements that help people plan for situations that are likely to foil their resolve. For example, someone who’s watching her alcohol intake might tell herself before a party, “If anyone offers me a drink, then I’ll ask for club soda with lime.”

Research among adolescents and adults has found that implementation intentions improve self-control, even among people whose willpower has been depleted by laboratory tasks. Having a plan in place ahead of time may allow you to make decisions in the moment without having to draw on your willpower.

The research suggesting that we possess a limited reservoir of self-control raises a troubling question. When we face too many temptations, are we destined to fail? Not necessarily. Researchers don’t believe that one’s willpower is ever completely exhausted. Rather, people appear to hold some willpower in reserve, conserved for future demands. The right motivation allows us to tap into those reserves, allowing us to persevere even when our self-control strength has been run down.

In a demonstration of this idea, Mark Muraven found that willpower-depleted individuals persisted on a self-control task when they were told they’d be paid for their efforts, or that their efforts would benefit others (such as helping to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease). High motivation, he concludes, might help overcome weakened willpower—at least to a point.

Willpower may also be made less vulnerable to being depleted in the first place. Researchers who study self-control often describe it as being like a muscle that gets fatigued with heavy use. But there is another aspect to the muscle analogy, they say. While muscles become exhausted by exercise in the short term, they are strengthened by regular exercise in the long term. Similarly, regularly exerting self-control may improve willpower strength.

In one of the first demonstrations of this idea, Muraven and his colleagues asked volunteers to follow a two-week regimen to track their food intake, improve their moods or improve their posture. Compared to a control group, the participants who had exerted self-control by performing the assigned exercises were less vulnerable to willpower depletion in follow-up lab tests.

In another study, he found that smokers who practiced self-control for two weeks by avoiding sweets or regularly squeezing a handgrip were more successful at quitting smoking than control subjects who performed two weeks of regular tasks that required no self-control, such as writing in a diary.

Others have also found that flexing your willpower muscles can strengthen self-control over time. Australian scientists Megan Oaten, PhD, and Ken Cheng, PhD, of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, assigned volunteers to a two-month program of physical exercise—a routine that required willpower. At the end of two months, participants who had stuck with the program did better on a lab measure of self-control than did participants who were not assigned to the exercise regimen. That’s not all. The subjects also reported smoking less and drinking less alcohol, eating healthier food, monitoring their spending more carefully, and improving their study habits. Regularly exercising their willpower with physical exercise, it seemed, led to better willpower in nearly all areas of their lives.

The findings that willpower depletion is tied to glucose levels also suggest a possible remedy. Eating regularly to maintain blood-sugar levels in the brain may help refuel run-down willpower stores. (But don’t let the term “sugar” fool you. Healthy meals without refined sugar are actually better than sweets at keeping blood-sugar levels on an even keel, experts say.) Dieters, who are aiming to maintain willpower while cutting calories, might do better eating frequent small meals rather than skipping breakfast or lunch.

The evidence from willpower-depletion studies also suggests that making a list of resolutions on New Year’s Eve is the worst possible approach. Being depleted in one area can reduce willpower in other spheres, so it makes more sense to focus on a single goal at a time. In other words, don’t try to quit smoking, adopt a healthy diet, and start a new exercise plan at the same time. Taking goals one by one is a better approach.

Once a good habit is in place, Baumeister says, you’ll no longer need to draw on your willpower to maintain the behavior. Eventually healthy habits will become routine, and won’t require making decisions at all.

Many questions about the nature of self-control remain to be answered by further research. Yet it seems likely that with clear goals, good self-monitoring, and a little practice, you can train your willpower to stay strong in the face of temptation.

Download a print version of “Strengthening Self-Control” (PDF, 233KB)

Further reading

Baumeister, R., & Vohs, K. (2007). Self-regulation, ego depletion, and motivation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 1–14.

Baumeister, R., et al. (2006). Self-regulation and personality: How interventions increase regulatory success, and how depletion moderates the effects of traits on behavior. Journal of Personality, 74, 1773–1801.

Duckworth, A., et al. (2011). Self-regulation strategies improve self-discipline in adolescents: Benefits of mental contrasting and implementation intentions. Educational Psychology, 31, 17–26.

Oaten, M., & Cheng, K. (2006). Longitudinal gains in self-regulation from physical exercise. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11, 717–733.

Painter, J., et al. (2002). How visibility and convenience influence candy consumption. Appetite, 38, 237–238.

Muraven, M. (2010). Practicing self-control lowers the risk of smoking lapse. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24, 446–452.

Muraven, M., & Slessareva, E. (2003). Mechanism of self-control failure: Motivation and limited resources. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 894–906.

Muraven, M. et al. (1999). Longitudinal improvement of self-regulation through practice: Building self-control strength through repeated exercise. Journal of Social Psychology, 139, 446–457.

Webb, T., & Sheeran, P. (2003). Can implementation intentions help to overcome ego-depletion? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 279–286.

Key points and conclusions

Willpower is the ability to resist short-term gratification in pursuit of long-term goals or objectives.

Willpower is correlated with positive life outcomes such as better grades, higher self-esteem, lower substance abuse rates, greater financial security, and improved physical and mental health.

When willpower fails, exposure to an emotionally charged stimulus overrides one’s rational, cognitive system, leading to impulsive actions.

One’s capacity for self-control appears to be persistent. Children with better self-control as preschoolers tend to have better self-control as adults.

Individuals with low self-control show differing brain patterns when presented with tempting stimuli.

Willpower can be compared to a muscle that becomes fatigued with overuse. Studies show that repeatedly resisting temptation drains your ability to withstand future enticements.

Willpower depletion has a physical basis. Individuals whose willpower has been depleted have decreased activity in a brain region involved with cognition, and have lower blood-glucose levels than do people whose willpower has not been diminished.

The effects of willpower depletion may be mitigated by positive moods, beliefs, and attitudes.

Willpower depletion impacts a range of behaviors, including food intake, substance use and abuse, and purchasing behavior.

Financial decision-making may be even more depleting for people living in poverty, since virtually all financial decisions are likely to represent difficult tests of self-control among people who are financially insecure.

Avoiding temptation and planning ahead are effective tactics for maintaining self-control in the face of temptation.

With the right motivation, you may be able to persevere even when your willpower strength has been depleted.

Maintaining steady blood-glucose levels, such as by eating regular healthy meals and snacks, may help prevent the effects of willpower depletion.

Because being depleted in one area can reduce willpower in other spheres, it is more effective to focus on a single goal at a time rather than attacking a list of multiple resolutions at once.

Just as muscles are strengthened by regular exercise, regularly exerting self-control may improve willpower strength over time.

Download a print version of “Key Points and Conclusions” (PDF, 120KB)

This report is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered psychotherapy or any form of treatment or counseling. APA is not able to respond to specific questions or comments about personal situations, appropriate diagnosis or treatment, or otherwise provide any clinical opinions. If you think you need immediate assistance, call your local emergency number or the mental health crisis hotline listed in your local phone book’s government pages. To find a psychologist in your area, use APA’s Psychologist Locator.

Willpower: Definition, Effects, and How to Increase It

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Optimism & Mindset

12 Mar 2024

What Is Willpower? The Psychology Behind Self-Control

2 Oct 2016 by Jeremy Sutton, Ph.D.

Scientifically reviewed by Jo Nash, Ph.D.

We all wish we had more willpower, self-discipline, and self-control.

After all, think about what we could do–and all we could achieve–if we did.

Several researchers believe increasing our understanding of willpower and self-control may be psychology’s best hope for contributing to human welfare (Baumeister & Tierney, 2011).

After all, the wealth of self-help books at the airport suggests we all need some help to form good habits and being more disciplined as we work towards our goals.

This article digs deeper into the psychology of willpower and the tools available to boost it.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains:

What Is Willpower? Its Meaning & Definition

The Psychology Behind Willpower

4 Admirable Examples of Willpower

How to Increase Your Willpower

4 Best Books on Willpower & Psychology

Resources from PositivePsychology.com

A Take-Home Message

References

What Is Willpower? Its Meaning & Definition

Neuroscience tells us that our prefrontal cortex–the part of the brain just behind our forehead–controls what we do. It directs what we pay attention to and think about–and even the emotions we experience (McGonigal, 2013).

So, when we put things off, watching TV instead of completing the tax form, that’s our prefrontal cortex at work.

And yet, this part of the brain is more than a single unified decision-maker. It has three key areas, each one helping us weigh up whether “I will,” “I will not,” or “I want” to do something.

The left side of this brain region helps us stick to tasks (I will)–even boring ones–while the right side (I will not) stops us from being distracted or giving in to temptation. Finally, in the middle, but lower down in our prefrontal cortex, the cells fire to keep us motivated and in line with our goals (I want) (McGonigal, 2013).

Sometimes, because of the ongoing competition within our brains, we fail. We don’t have the willpower to stick to the diet or get to the gym. Other times, we maintain the drive to push on, despite other interests, temptations, and distractions. Willpower is evident in the latter.

And “anyone with some life experience under their belt knows that they can accomplish more with a healthy sense of constraint and willpower” (Hollins, 2021, p. 15).

So, where does this leave us with our understanding – its meaning and definition?

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “willpower is the ability to resist short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.” (American Psychological Association, 2012, para. 7).

We could define willpower and see its benefits as (American Psychological Association, 2012):

Resisting short-term temptations and delay gratification to achieve long-term goals

Overriding unwanted thoughts, feelings, or impulses

Responding coolly and calmly rather than behave too emotionally

Conscious, effortful regulation of oneself by oneself

A limited resource that can be depleted

Understanding willpower is essential to recognizing why we behave as we do and how we develop our resilience.

Research into patients’ ability to combat disease and illness suggests that it is “willpower that gives an individual resilience to overcome difficulties” and “that which our heart and mind do not desire, we will not have the willpower to obtain” (Amdie, Sawhney, & Woo, 2022).

The Psychology Behind Willpower

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”

Henry Ford (Goodreads, n.d.).

For a long time, psychologists thought of willpower as a limited resource—known as the ‘ego-depletion theory’ (American Psychological Association, 2012).

Work by Roy Baumeister led to the view that willpower is finite and–just like energy when muscles are overworked–can be used up. In his famous ‘cookie’ experiment, people who could resist eating them right away (called delayed gratification) had a more challenging time controlling temptation later in other tasks (Baumeister & Tierney, 2011).

The theory suggests that if you set more than one self-improvement goal, you may draw on willpower reserves, leaving you depleted and risking failure (Baumeister & Tierney, 2011).

And if willpower is a limited resource, we must use it wisely to achieve long-term goals (American Psychological Association, 2012).

And yet, recent and contradictory psychological research and theory suggest there isn’t a fixed amount of willpower. “Instead of thinking of willpower as the amount of petrol in a car…think of it as the car’s battery,” says Krishna Savani from Nanyang Technological University (Jarrett, 2018, para. 3).

Savani believes that with the right mindset and motivation, we can ‘own’ our self-control and willpower. And this is backed up by data. Studies show that people are less likely to quit a task when told their resolve is not fixed but unlimited.

While building willpower is not easy, psychology suggests that “a huge part of the solution is simply believing that you can do it” (Hollins, 2021, p. 36).

So, what happens when we do and don’t get things done?

It seems that mindset is crucial. Students coming up to exams that were told willpower was unlimited experienced less stress, fewer bad moods, and could step up their efforts. If we ‘believe’ we have the reserves available to tackle the challenges ahead, we increase our chances of future success (Jarrett, 2018).

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4 Admirable Examples of Willpower

The following three powerful examples highlight the potential for willpower to change lives.

The first shows how it is possible to lose our strength of will and how it is influenced by the brain’s anatomy. The second shows the value of willpower in sports and the final displays the potential of good habits to improve business performance.

The curious case of Phineas Gage

While working on the railways in 1848, twenty-five-year-old Phineas Gage suffered a terrible accident. An iron rod pierced his skull at speed following an explosion, lodging itself in his prefrontal cortex. Although he survived the head injury, he experienced extreme changes to his personality, language, intelligence, motor functions, and self-control.

Previously calm, focused, and mentally strong, he was now impatient and impulsive. His friends described him as no longer being Gage—he had lost his most admired qualities, particularly his willpower.

The damage to the part of the brain we now know is associated with self-control meant that he no longer had the willpower to see tasks through to the end or to stop himself from succumbing to temptation. He never fully recovered (Zeigler-Hill & Shackelford, 2020; McGonigal, 2013).

Video

The Remarkable Tale of Phineas Gage

A baseball legend

Kobe Bryant was an American basketball player widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time. He was known for his strong willpower and determination throughout his basketball career.

And yet, having joined a summer basketball camp at age 12, he didn’t score a single point. He was ready to give up on basketball, but then he read about how Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team and how it became his motivation to outwork everyone around him (Robertson, 2016).

The story inspired Kobe to follow in Jordan’s footsteps and become the hardest worker in the game of basketball. He began showing up at the gym at 5 am and not leaving until 7 pm while in high school. He put himself through four hours of intense workouts even on game days, played one-on-one games up to 100 points after practice, and worked on his skills with no one else or a ball to perfect his footwork.

Michael Jordan was a role model and inspiration for Kobe, greatly influencing his willpower and motivating him to achieve his goals.

Sadly, Kobe’s life was cut short by a devastating helicopter crash in 2020 that killed him and his daughter, yet he was to become an inspiration for his fans, and his commitment a lesson to us all (Gooden, 2022).

Making a stand for civil rights

Rosa Parks never imagined that her bus journey home would result in her becoming a figurehead for the US civil rights movement.

And yet, on December 1, 1955, when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white person, it led to a 381-day boycott and the ultimate repeal of racial segregation on buses (Bredhoff, Wynell, & Potter, 1999).

Rosa Parks’ strength of will caused one small act of defiance that was part of something that changed history and her being called by the United States Congress “the first lady of civil rights.” (Wikipedia Foundation, 2023).

Creating good habits to boost willpower

James Clear talks about the importance of good strategies in his book “Atomic Habits” and offers the following example of how they can drive willpower (Clear, 2018).

When Trent Dyrsmid began his job at a bank in 1993, he was young and inexperienced – so no one expected much from him. And yet, he formed a powerful habit that boosted his commitment and willpower.

He started each day with two jars: one with 120 paper clips and the other empty. Each time he made a sales call, he moved one paperclip from the full jar to the empty one. He wouldn’t stop until the first jar was empty.

It sounds simple, and yet “[w]ithin eighteen months, Dyrsmid was bringing in nearly $5 million to the firm.” (Clear, 2018, p. 196). He was successful because the good habits he put in place drove his willpower and facilitated his desire for success.

How to Increase Your Willpower

Whether you believe willpower is a limited resource or something that can be ‘re-filled,’ there are many ways it can be increased.

Here are some actions and behaviors that can help boost your willpower (Jarrett, 2018; American Psychological Association, 2012; Baumeister & Tierney, 2011; McGonigal, 2013; Clear, 2022):

Strengthen your mind

“Psychological discomfort is created because you know you are avoiding your responsibilities, so you engage in a distraction to alleviate that discomfort.” (Hollins, 2021, p. 48). The following exercises can help strengthen your mind, helping you to not take the easy option, for example, choosing unhealthy eating habits or remaining inactive:

Practice mindfulness meditation

To improve self-control and help individuals act from intention rather than habit or craving.

Get enough sleep

Physical and mental fatigue can decrease willpower, so it’s essential to maintain energy levels by getting sufficient and good quality sleep each night.

Use food- or fitness-tracking apps

Tracking what we do or don’t do can help individuals make healthier eating choices and provide encouragement to get up and move by tracking movement and exercise.

Develop your personal control

When we have confidence in our abilities and believe in our willpower, we are better able to keep or regain control (Hollins, 2021).

Set clear and specific goals

A clear understanding of your goals can help increase motivation and self-control.

Break down large goals into smaller, more manageable tasks

Smaller chunks of work that build up to larger goals make it easier to focus on progression and stay motivated.

Work with a mental health professional

Therapists and counselors can provide guidance and support in increasing willpower and building healthy habits.

Delivering your full potential

Sometimes our biases change how we see opportunities and make us focus more on risks than benefits. Making decisions based on reason can help us realize our full potential along with a kinder, more optimistic view of what we have to offer (Hollins, 2022).

Challenge yourself

Push yourself out of your comfort zone by taking on complex but not impossible tasks. Practice and repetition will boost willpower.

Practice self-compassion

Be kind and understanding with yourself when you make mistakes or stumble, and don’t let setbacks discourage you from continuing to work on increasing your willpower.

Get support from others

Surround yourself with people who encourage and support your efforts to increase your willpower.

It’s essential to remember that willpower is like a muscle and that progress may not always be immediate or linear. Furthermore, like physical exercise, our mental resolve and self-control can be strengthened with practice and pushing against perceived limits.

Note that there is no “right” amount of willpower, but we ought to develop what is needed to live a happy, healthy life where we flourish (Seligman, 2011; Jarrett, 2018).

4 Best Books on Willpower & Psychology

The following books all provide helpful insights regarding developing willpower:

1. The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It – Kelly McGonigal

Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal has combined cutting-edge insights from psychology, economics, neuroscience, and medicine to explain the meaning of willpower and how to use it to transform our lives.

Use the advice and tools provided to reduce willpower failures and regain self-control.

Find the book on Amazon.

2. Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength – Roy Baumeister & John Tierney

Research scientist Roy Baumeister teams up with New York Times science writer John Tierney in this book to explore the concept of willpower and self-control.

Use the lessons they describe to focus on your strengths, resist temptation, and work towards what you want out of life.

Find the book on Amazon.

3. The Power of Self-Discipline: 5-Minute Exercises to Build Self-Control, Good Habits, and Keep Going When You Want to Give Up – Peter Hollins

Self-discipline dictates a great deal of what we receive in life. Learn more about your discipline style and better understand the emotional, psychological, and biological obstacles in your way.

Peter Hollins has created a valuable toolkit of techniques that will help ensure your actions align with your intentions.

Find the book on Amazon.

4. The Self-Discipline Manual: How to Achieve Every Goal You Set Using Willpower, Self-Control, and Mental Toughness – Peter Hollins

When we lack energy, we typically underachieve. This book discusses motivation and discipline techniques and how we can use them to attack our daily tasks and habits.

Learn more about self-control and how to hack your body’s limitations in this fascinating book.

Find the book on Amazon.

Resources from PositivePsychology.com

We have many resources available for therapists providing support to individuals wishing to boost their willpower and target their self-control.

Our free resources include the following:

Self-Control Spotting for Children

It is tremendously helpful for children to learn early on about what they can and cannot control. In this exercise, children are asked to reflect upon and discuss whether or not the eight activities supplied reflect self-control.

WDEP Questions Worksheet

These four sets of questions help individuals reflect on what they want, what they are doing, whether it is working, and how to change things for the better.

Avoidance Plan Worksheet

Use this three-step process to identify the behaviors you wish to change, their triggers, and healthy avoidance strategies.

More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, but they are described briefly below:

Increasing self-control through repeated practice

Self-control is the exertion of control over the self by the self. Research has shown that engaging in some self-control activities regularly for two weeks can lead to improvements in willpower:

Step 1: Choose an act of self-control that you will try to complete daily

Step 2: Determine when, where, and how you will complete it

Step 3: Keep a record of whether you completed your act of self-control

Behavioral activation

Behavioral activation refers to encouraging people to deliberately engage in activities associated with the experience of pleasure or mastery.

In this exercise, you develop ways to become more active and measure how you feel before and after these activities to see whether they help boost your mood.

Step 1: Log your current activities

Step 2: Categorize each one as either ‘Energy Giving’ or ‘Energy Draining’

Step 3: Determine whether energy-giving activities are simply for pleasure or learning a skill

Step 4: Add more pleasure and mastery activities into your day

Step 5: Plan more energy giving activities

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others reach their goals, this collection contains 17 validated motivation & goals-achievement tools for practitioners. Use them to help others turn their dreams into reality by applying the latest science-based behavioral change techniques.

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

These 17 Motivation & Goal Achievement Exercises [PDF] contain all you need to help others set meaningful goals, increase self-drive, and experience greater accomplishment and life satisfaction.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Download Now

A Take-Home Message

Willpower, self-discipline, and self-control are valuable abilities that can help us achieve our goals.

Willpower provides us with the ability to resist short-term temptations while we focus on long-term goals, giving us the capacity to override unwanted thoughts, feelings, and impulses. When strong-willed, we can respond coolly and calmly rather than rashly and emotionally.

Some believe willpower is limited, while others consider it something that can be re-filled and infinite. Either way, it can be grown, becoming a habit that we can practice daily through learning practical strategies and pushing ourselves toward new challenges.

Studies suggest people are less likely to quit a task when they believe their willpower is unlimited and that a considerable part of the solution is simply thinking that you can do it.

Work with your clients to understand how and when their willpower may lack and how it stops them from achieving what they want. Work with them to help them realize the unbounded nature of willpower and try out some practices shared within this article to become their best selves.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free.

References

Amdie, F. Z., Sawhney, M., & Woo, K. (2022). The Weakness of Will: The Role of Free Will in Treatment Adherence. Patient preference and adherence, 16, 1131–1139.

American Psychological Association. (2012, December 1). What you need to know about willpower: The psychological science of self-control. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.apa.org/topics/personality/willpower

Baumeister, R. F., & Tierney, J. (2011). Willpower: Rediscovering the greatest human strength. Penguin Books.

Bredhoff, S., Wynell, S., & Potter, L-A. (1999). The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks. Social Education 63, 4: 207-211.

Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Penguin.

Clear, J. (2022). Willpower. James Clear. Retrieved January 27, 2023, from https://jamesclear.com/willpower

Gooden, T. (2022). Kobe Bryant: The life story you may not know. Stacker. Retrieved January 27, 2023, from https://stacker.com/celebrities/kobe-bryant-life-story-you-may-not-know

Goodreads. (n.d.). A quote by Henry Ford. Goodreads. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/978-whether-you-think-you-can-or-you-think-you-can-t–you-re

Hollins, P. (2021). The power of self-discipline: 5-minute exercises to build self-control, good habits, and keep going when you want to give up. Peter Hollins.

Hollins, P. (2022). The Self-Discipline Manual: How to Achieve Every Goal You Set Using Willpower, Self-Control, and Mental Toughness. Independently published.

Jarrett, C. (2018). Don’t quit now: Why you have more willpower than you think. New Scientist. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23531420-400-dont-quit-now-why-you-have-more-willpower-than-you-think/

McGonigal, K. (2013). The willpower instinct: How self-control works, why it matters, and what you can do to get more of it. Avery.

Robertson, C. (2016). 5 lessons world class athletes can teach us about willpower. Willpowered. Retrieved January 27, 2023, from http://willpowered.com/learn/world-class-athletes-willpower

Seligman, M. (2011). Flourish: A new understanding of happiness and well-being and how to achieve them. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Wikipedia Foundation. (2023). Rosa Parks. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 8, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. K. (2020). Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences. Springer.

About the author

Jeremy Sutton, Ph.D., is a writer and researcher studying the human capacity to push physical and mental limits. His work always remains true to the science beneath, his real-world background in technology, his role as a husband and parent, and his passion as an ultra-marathoner.

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What our readers think

Damian M Smith

on January 3, 2023 at 13:28

An interesting and thought provoking article in which I recognised a number of traits that I have and need to address. Incredibly informative and written in simple easy to understand language. Many thanks for the effort to research, analyse and report. Your work in greatly appreciated and will be used to the best of my ability.

Spider

on November 21, 2022 at 12:53

Thank you so much for writing this and providing these valuable inputs. If you convert these advices into the monetary terms, I am sure it will be in millions.

priya

on February 1, 2022 at 09:20

sustaining will power would be significantly important. there will be many temptations as people progress through life. the degree of will power required for temptations which might impact large areas of life could be few but their effect could be very powerfully disruptive. for example adopting unethical practices to make quick money. This is both a challenge at individual core value level at

the organisational level. There are temptations for diluting personal integrity for attractive rewards

reyhan

on December 14, 2021 at 04:36

thanks alot of information

Moses

on August 5, 2022 at 11:39

I always act in away I never wish to act. In area of womanising.How can one willpower help to stop this damaging act. Sometimes just to satisfy the mind of the opposite sex. I will compromised. I need your help

Nicole Celestine, Ph.D.

on August 7, 2022 at 06:30

Hi Moses,

I’m sorry to read you are struggling. When we feel that we’re not in control of our behavior (whether it’s drinking, sex, gambling, etc.) and we find ourselves doing things we regret or that harm ourselves or our relationships, it’s usually worthwhile speaking with a professional to get some support. Psychology Today has a great directory you can use to find therapists in your local area (and note you can change the country setting in the top-right corner): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists

I hope this helps and I wish you all the best.

– Nicole | Community Manager

gas strand

on October 20, 2021 at 03:53

Thank you so much for this article! This was exactly what I needed.

saeed sepahsalar

on October 2, 2021 at 14:15

One the best and usefull and effective articles I have read in all of my life.

I would like to thank the writter, i do not know him/her but i shake his/her hand warmly from iran and i wish bests for him/her. Thank you so so much.

RAMAMOHAN MANAMASA

on September 7, 2021 at 04:16

Interesting Article,I liked it,it is more relevant and appealing to my previous readings on Will Power.

anita dewasi

on June 20, 2021 at 15:58

thankyou so much for sach a big life lession i feel better , it’s change outlook of lifre

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Other names for this concept include self-control, discipline, and resolve.However, psychologists have differing ideas about how willpower works and how important it is for explaining human behavior. In this article, learn more about what willpower is, how it affects behavior, and how to improve it.What is willpower?Share on PinterestSolStock/Getty ImagesWillpower is a person’s ability to consciously control their behavior. Often, people use the term “willpower” when talking about behaviors that require significant mental or physical effort, such as:giving up smokinggetting regular exercisesaving moneyThese changes in behavior involve delaying immediate gratification in order to meet long-term goals. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), this is a key characteristic of willpower.What do psychologists say about willpower?Although psychologists generally have a similar concept of what willpower is, there are differing theories about how it works.Strength modelAccording to the strength model, people have a finite amount of willpower they can draw upon. It is possible to exercise willpower for some time, but eventually, a person will run out.The researchers who proposed this model in the 2000s compare this to exercising a muscle. If a person overuses a muscle, it will get tired. Psychologists call this “ego depletion.”Once ego depletion occurs, a person has few mental resources left for self-control. Obstacles such as temptations, distractions, and other pressures all add to this.However, people who believe in the strength model also believe it is possible to strengthen willpower with regular practice.The process modelIn the 2010s, some psychologists began to question the concept of ego depletion. A 2014 paper proposes an alternative model in which willpower is part of an ongoing negotiation between a person’s “have to” goals and their “want to” goals.For example, a student who has homework to do after school may feel a strong desire to play video games. This could be because they are tired, find the work boring, or find it too difficult. As a result, their short-term desire to relax may take priority over their long-term goal of getting good grades.This may look like a “failure” of willpower from the outside, but proponents of the process model argue it is more about shifting priorities. The mind is constantly trying to balance competing physical and mental needs, which become more or less important depending on a person’s circumstances.Rather than trying to increase the strength of willpower itself, this model suggests strengthening the impulses that lead to helpful actions and weakening impulses that undermine them.How willpower affects peopleBelow is some of the research on how willpower affects behavior and decision making.Academic achievementA 2019 study notes that self-control is essential for academic achievement. In fact, high levels of self-control predict higher attainment. However, it is something students of all ages can find challenging.This is because the work involved in achieving high grades is often significantly less satisfying than other activities, such as sports or socializing. Despite this, many students say studying is important for their long-term goals. RelationshipsA different 2019 study looked at the way willpower, and a person’s beliefs about willpower, influence their ability to provide emotional support to a romantic partner.The authors speculated that people who believed in limited willpower may experience more mental tiredness than others, and therefore find it easier to recognize the signs of tiredness in others.The study suggests this may be true, as participants who subscribed to the strength model were more likely to report tired partners. However, these participants also reported more tiredness in themselves. As a result, those who believed in limited willpower offered less support to their partner overall.Resilience at workA 2017 study found that believing in unlimited willpower, as opposed to limited willpower, acts as a “buffer” against emotional dissonance at work.Emotional dissonance in a workplace occurs when an employee’s feelings contradict those of their employer. For example, employees may have a negative reaction to news that the employer views as a positive, creating emotional dissonance. Emotional dissonance causes discomfort and is mentally tiring, which the authors of the 2017 study connect to ego depletion. But when employees believe willpower is infinite, they have a better ability to cope with emotional dissonance. This also spills over into their personal lives, meaning they have better self-control at work and at home.HealthDiet and behavior changes are a common part of medical treatments, particularly for chronic conditions. Willpower plays a role in whether a person is able to make those changes.For example, a 2020 study found that people with knee osteoarthritis who believed in unlimited willpower were more likely to keep up with physical activity as part of their treatment.However, additional factors, such as severe symptoms, depressive symptoms, and a higher body mass index, appeared to counteract this benefit.This shows how a person’s circumstances can make it harder to exert self-control – or, from the process model perspective, how they cause a person’s priorities to change – even if they believe willpower has no limit.Tips for improving willpowerThere are many ways of making it easier to exert willpower.Setting goals, plans, or rulesHaving a clear goal in mind, and understanding the motivation behind it, can help a person gain momentum and stay focused on long-term progress. The more they desire the goal, the easier it may be to prioritize.For example, a person may know they will benefit from performing well at work in general. But having a clear career goal, such as a promotion, gives a person more powerful reasons to keep doing so.For longer projects, planning may provide additional help. Breaking a long-term goal down into smaller pieces can help people feel a sense of achievement when they complete each step. They can also set aside time within that plan for breaks.Alternatively, people can try setting personal rules. For example, a person can set a rule for themselves that they always do their homework right after getting home from school. This may help with maintaining consistent habits.Changing the situationThis involves changing the circumstances of the task a person wants to perform, such as by changing the location, timeframe, or workload. People can try:Changing locations: Some environments are more conducive to certain activities than others. For example, a classroom or library is a quiet environment to work in, with fewer distractions than a person’s home. If there is a location that is well-suited to the task, try going there and seeing if it helps with self-control.Changing their current environment: If a location change is not possible, small adjustments to the current location may help. For example, a person might tidy their workspace, put on music that helps them focus, or make the space more comfortable.Limiting distractions: Removing distracting objects from a person’s line of sight may help them stay focused. People can also mute notifications or use apps on their devices to limit their usage.Setting deadlines or rewards: A deadline can help people delay gratification because they know that, once they meet the deadline, they will no longer need to. Similarly, rewards can help motivate someone by balancing something difficult with something fun or enjoyable.Directing attentionThis strategy involves intentionally directing attention toward the task or goal a person wants to pursue. People can do this via:Visual cues: This could be as simple as deliberately looking away from one object and toward another. For example, a person might look away from their computer and toward a book they want to read.Progress monitoring: People can also use self-monitoring to keep their attention on their goals. They might do this by keeping a dedicated journal on their progress, having an accountability partner, or hiring a coach or counselor.Mindfulness: Becoming aware of a person’s own conflicting wants and needs may help them make decisions more intentionally.ReframingWhen performing a difficult or boring task, people can gain willpower by changing how they think about the task. This is known as reframing.For example, a person might dislike physical therapy after an injury because they find it hard, tiring, or frustrating. They could reframe these feelings as a sign they are progressing or reframe the activity as their route to getting back into a hobby they enjoy, such as dance or sport.Sometimes, people can benefit from support in changing how they think about a situation, such as from a therapist.Learn more about cognitive restructuring.SummaryWillpower is the ability to control one’s own behavior intentionally. It is part of how humans make decisions, particularly when it comes to prioritizing long-term goals or short-term gratification.Psychologists have varying theories about willpower and how it works. There are also many methods for strengthening willpower. What helps may differ from person to person.Some medical conditions can affect willpower and focus. If a person finds focusing on a task or meeting a goal particularly hard, they may want to speak with a doctor or therapist. Last medically reviewed on August 22, 2022Mental HealthPsychology / PsychiatryHow we reviewed this article:SourcesMedical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.Balamurugan, G., et al. (2021). Emotional dissonance and job satisfaction – A review of empirical studies.https://www.ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR2104021.pdfBaumeister, R. F., et al. (2007). The strength model of self-control [Abstract].https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00534.xDuckworth, A. L., et al. (2019). Self-control and academic achievement.http://www.msrlab.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Duckworth-2019-Self-control-and-academic-achie.pdfFrancis, Z., et al. (2019). You seem tired, but so am I: Willpower theories and intention to provide support in romantic relationships [Abstract].https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407519877238Inzlicht, M., et al. (2014). Why self-control seems (but may not be) limited [Abstract].https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661313002945Konze, A-K., et al. (2018). Can faith move mountains? How implicit theories about willpower moderate the adverse effect of daily emotional dissonance on ego-depletion at work and its spillover to the home-domain [Abstract].https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1359432X.2018.1560269Maio, S. D., et al. (2020). Health demands moderate the link between willpower beliefs and physical activity in patients with knee osteoarthritis.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-020-09865-wWhat you need to know about willpower: The psychological science of self-control. (2012).https://www.apa.org/topics/personality/willpowerShare this articleMedically reviewed by Kendra Kubala, PsyD, Psychology — By Amy Murnan on August 22, 2022Latest newsPVC, other microplastics found in clogged arteriesA natural compound derived from broccoli may help prevent and treat strokeA 'DNA diet' may help reduce type 2 diabetes risk, new study arguesCould an intervention as simple as eye drops treat eye damage in diabetes?How and why does gut health influence heart health?Related CoverageWhat a flow state is and how to achieve itMedically reviewed by Karin Gepp, PsyDFlow is a mental state in which a person becomes totally absorbed in a task. Learn more about flow state, including its benefits and how to achieve it.READ MOREWhy emotional self-regulation is important and how to do itEmotional self-regulation is the skill of considering how to respond to strong emotions rather than acting on impulse with negative or destructive…READ MOREWhat are impulse control disorders?Medically reviewed by Marney A. White, PhD, MSPeople with impulse control disorders find it very difficult to resist an impulse or temptation to perform certain acts, which could be harmful or…READ MOREFear of rejection: What it is and how to overcome itMedically reviewed by Kendra Kubala, PsyDFear of rejection is an irrational and persistent fear of social exclusion. Learn more about the signs, causes, and how to overcome it here. READ MOREAvoidant personality disorder treatmentMedically reviewed by Matthew Boland, PhDAvoidant personality disorder treatment usually involves talk therapy, which can help a person reframe negative self-beliefs. Learn more.READ MOREAbout UsContact UsTerms of UsePrivacy PolicyPrivacy SettingsAdvertising PolicyHealth TopicsHealth HubsMedical AffairsContent IntegrityNewsletters© 2024 Healthline Media UK Ltd, Brighton, UK. All rights reserved. MNT is the registered trade mark of Healthline Media. Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional. See additional information.© 2024 Healthline Media UK Ltd, Brighton, UK. All rights reserved. MNT is the registered trade mark of Healthline Media. Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional. See additional information.AboutCareersAdvertise with usOUR BRANDSHealthlineMedical News TodayGreatistPsych CentralBezzy

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Good Thinking

Self-Control

How to Boost Your Willpower

Willpower is like a muscle—in more ways than one.

Posted June 21, 2013

Reviewed by Lybi Ma

THE BASICS

What Is Self-Control?

Find a therapist to help with self-control

Key points

When people are stressed, they tend to fall back on ingrained habits—whether those habits are helpful or harmful.

When it comes to willpower, people-pleasers may find themselves at a disadvantage compared to those who are secure in themselves.

Breaking a goal into "sub goals" allows for smaller wins to help one avoid full willpower depletion.

A growing body of evidence indicates that willpower and self-control are essential for a happy and successful life. The most persuasive evidence comes from two studies that measured young children’s self-control, and then kept track of them as they grew into adults.

The most well-known experiment, the “marshmallow experiment,” began in the 1960s by psychologist Walter Mischel. He offered 4-year-olds the choice of a marshmallow now, or two if they could wait 15 minutes. He and other researchers then tracked the performance of these children as they became adults. They found that children who resisted temptation (“high delayers”) achieved greater academic success, better health, and lower rates of marital separation and divorce. Mischel concluded that the ability to delay gratification constituted “a protective buffer against the development of all kinds of vulnerabilities later in life.”

In a second study, 1,000 children were tracked from birth to the age of 32. The researchers found that childhood self-control predicted physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offenses. This was true even when other factors such as intelligence and social class were equated. They even compared sibling pairs and found that the sibling in each pair with lower self-control had poorer outcomes, despite shared family background.

So how can you improve your willpower?

Use It or Lose It, But Don’t Overdo It

You undoubtedly already know these facts about muscles:

Muscles get stronger when exercised.

Muscles can be overworked, leaving them weak until they have a chance to recover.

What you may not know is that these things are also true of willpower.

In one study, participants were instructed to try to not think about a white bear. Thought-suppression tasks like this require a good deal of self-control. After completing the task, they were told to limit their intake of beer during a taste test because a driving test would follow. These participants drank a lot more beer than other participants who had not done the thought-suppression task.

In another study, people who were asked to suppress their feelings while they watched an upsetting movie gave up sooner on a subsequent test of physical stamina than did people who were allowed to freely respond to the emotional impact of the film.

In a third study, women watched a nature documentary while being seated next to or across the room from a bowl of candy. Later, they were given impossible puzzles to solve. Those who had sat near the candy while watching the movie gave up sooner than the women who were seated far from the candy. The effort to resist that nearby temptation depleted willpower, causing these women to give up sooner on the stressful task.

In each of these cases, people found it difficult to slog through difficult tasks when their willpower had been depleted. But willpower can also be strengthened. Here’s how.

How to Strengthen Your Willpower

Don’t keep yourself in a constant state of willpower depletion

Weight-lifting is a great way to build muscle. But you wouldn’t spend half an hour lifting weights just before helping a friend move his furniture because you know that your muscles would be too fatigued to do a good job. Neither would you spend hours daily lifting weights with no recovery time. The same holds for willpower. While wisely exercising self-control is a great way to build willpower, never giving yourself a break is a good way to deplete your resolve.

In sports, coaches and trainers often draw a distinction between comfort zones and stretch zones. If you are comfortable running a 10-minute mile, increasing your pace to a 9-minute mile puts you in your stretch zone. Alternating between the two is a good way to improve your performance. But staying in your stretch zone indefinitely is not a good idea. Your risk of injury increases and your performance will suffer in the long run due to a lack of recovery time. The same holds for willpower.

Use your imagination

Imagination is a powerful technique for improving willpower. The body often responds to imagined situations in the same way it responds to experienced ones. If you imagine lying on a peaceful beach, listening to the waves gently lapping the shore and tasting the salty sea air, your body will respond by relaxing. If instead, you imagine being late for an important meeting, your body will tense in response. You can use this to your advantage in building willpower.

For example, as willpower experts Roy Baumeister and John Tierney point out, dieting is a means of keeping oneself in a chronically depleted state. As a result, the dieter feels everything more intensely—from minor irritations to longings for food or rest. But imagination can blunt the cravings that erode your self-control.

In one study, participants were asked to watch a movie, and a bowl of chocolate candy was placed nearby. One group was told to imagine they had decided to eat as much as they wanted, a second group was told to imagine they had decided to eat none, and a third group was told to imagine they’d decided to eat them later on. The first group did indeed eat more than the other two groups. But when given the opportunity to eat candy later, those who imagined they would delay eating the candy actually ate significantly less than the other two groups. They even reported having less desire for candy when queried through email the following day.

Think about something else

You can even use your imagination to keep unwanted thoughts at bay. In Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863), Fyodor Dostoyevsky made this observation: “Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute.” How do you avoid thinking about a white bear (or any other situation that tempts you or fills you with dread)? Train yourself to think about something else: Every time that white bear begins to lurk about in your consciousness, think about a black bear instead. Every time that unwanted thought threatens to intrude on your consciousness, think about something pleasant instead. That puts you in the driver’s seat of your thoughts.

Don’t underestimate this simple technique. In Mischel’s famous marshmallow study, “high delayers” resisted eating the marshmallow by distracting themselves, such as covering their eyes with their hands or turning around in their chairs so they couldn’t see the enticing object, or singing to themselves.

Build good habits; you’ll need them when you’re stressed

In a previous post, I discussed the impact that stress has on the body. Stress also strongly depletes willpower. When people are stressed, they tend to fall back on ingrained habits—whether those habits are helpful or harmful. Often, this is not a conscious choice. Rather, people resort to old habits without thinking because they are in a stressed state. Art Markman discusses this in more detail in a recent post.

Imagine, for example, that you have an important exam or business presentation tomorrow. Your grade in the course or your chance for promotion depends entirely on how you perform. These are highly stressful situations, and your body will respond by boosting stress hormones, notably cortisol. How will you respond?

Cortisol boosts cravings for carbohydrates because, as we saw, carbs lower cortisol levels. So perhaps you will take solace with your friends Ben and Jerry. But the downside of dealing with stress this way is that, in the long run, you risk obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Alcohol is a depressant that lowers cortisol. But taking this route puts you at risk for alcoholism. Every time you respond to cortisol surges through unhealthy means, you strengthen those habits. This virtually guarantees that under times of stress, you will fall back on these habits.

Fortunately for us, knowledge is power. Deal with the stress-induced surge in cortisol and you’ll manage your cravings for sugar or alcohol. Almost anything that counteracts the fight-or-flight response will do the trick. So start responding to mild stressors with healthier choices, such as listening to calming music, visualizing or viewing calming scenes, moderate exercise—whatever works for you. In fact, using comedy videos and surprise gifts, researchers demonstrated that inducing a good mood can overcome willpower-depletion effects.

The more you strengthen these habits, the more likely they will be there to rescue you when a major stressor comes along.

One step at a time

Oftentimes, people give up not because they lack willpower, but because they feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the goal they must accomplish. A good way to deal with this feeling of overwhelm is to break the goal down into manageable pieces and line them up in a sequence that guarantees success.

A journalist friend of mine (who is constantly facing impossible deadlines) once described her strategy this way: “Here’s how I do it,” she said. “It’s like eating an elephant—one bite at a time, and you’re not allowed to look up to see how much is left.”

After I stopped laughing at the image, it occurred to me that this was virtually the same advice another friend had given me about how to improve my running distance: Run as many laps as you can right now, she advised, then set a goal to add just one more lap each week. Following this advice, my daily runs progressed from a paltry half-mile to three miles in a few months.

The beauty of this strategy is that it not only guarantees success, but it also guarantees that you will never put yourself in a state of willpower depletion. As you reach each sub-goal, you will derive an enormous sense of satisfaction and pride in yourself, making it that much easier to tackle the next one. When you reach the final goal, you are more likely to feel a sense of abundance and strength rather than the more typical response of “I’m so exhausted, I could sleep for a week.”

Be yourself

It takes an enormous amount of effort to suppress your normal personality, preferences, and behaviors. Not surprisingly, doing so depletes willpower. Psychologist Mark Muraven and colleagues found that people who exert this kind of self-control to please others were more easily depleted than people who held true to their own internal goals and desires. When it comes to willpower, people-pleasers may find themselves at a disadvantage compared to those who are secure and comfortable with themselves.

Don't put yourself in temptation's way, or if you do, have a plan

I don’t care much for most types of candy, but, like most women, chocolate is a different matter. I cannot and will not keep it in the house. When my children brought home trick-or-treat candy, my husband was under strict orders to hide the chocolate where I would not find it. My side of the contract was not to look for it and not to ask for it. Knowing my weakness, I enacted a plan. And it has worked for years.

As Baumeister points out, "People with low willpower use it to get themselves out of crises. People with high willpower use it not to get themselves into crises." Avoid places that will tax your willpower. If you can’t avoid temptation, make a plan in advance for what you are going to do instead of succumbing.

THE BASICS

What Is Self-Control?

Find a therapist to help with self-control

About the Author

Denise Dellarosa Cummins, Ph.D., is the author of Good Thinking, The Historical Foundations of Cognitive Science, and Evolution of Mind.

Online: Good Thinking Books by Dr. Cummins

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WILLPOWER | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary

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English (UK)

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Meaning of willpower in English

willpowernoun [ U ] uk

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/ˈwɪl.paʊər/ us

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/ˈwɪl.paʊ.ɚ/

Add to word list

C2 the ability to control your own thoughts and the way in which you behave: It took a lot of willpower to stay calm. I don't have the willpower to diet. Synonym

determination (TRYING HARD)Compare

self-possession

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Self-control and moderation

ahold

anti-pleasure

ascetically

asceticism

be in command (of yourself) idiom

boundary

go steady on something idiom

golden mean

grip

imperviously

mind over matter idiom

puritanism

restrained

restrainedly

restraint

restrict

stint

temperance

undignified

unsensational

See more results »

(Definition of willpower from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

willpower | American Dictionary

willpowernoun [ U ] us

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/ˈwɪlˌpɑʊ·ər/

Add to word list

the ability to control your own thoughts and behavior, esp. in difficult situations: Staying on a diet takes a lot of willpower.

(Definition of willpower from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of willpower

willpower

Intertemporal bargaining theory predicts the emergence of both positive and negative features that have been ascribed to willpower.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Strong willpower and a good hereditary background, he argued, were central in the process of postcombat re-integration, but those unwilling or unable to cure themselves were responsible for their condition.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If one's body has become a symbol of one's identity, being fit reflects the person's willpower, energy and self-control in achieving the cultural norm of a ' youthful' old age.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This requires a tremendous effort of imagination and willpower.

From the Hansard archive