• DOI:10.1177/0146167203029007008
• Corpus ID: 16961238

Mechanisms of Self-Control Failure: Motivation and Limited Resources

@article{Muraven2003MechanismsOS,
  title={Mechanisms of Self-Control Failure: Motivation and Limited Resources},
  author={Mark Muraven and Elisaveta Slessareva},
  journal={Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin},
  year={2003},
  volume={29},
  pages={894 - 906}
}

• M. Muraven, Elisaveta Slessareva
• Published 1 July 2003
• Psychology
• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Research has found that individuals who are lower in self-control strength because of previous self-control exertions perform more poorly on subsequent tests of self-control. The present studies suggest that this effect may be moderated by motivation. In particular, depletion and motivation jointly determine self-control performance. Individuals who were depleted and believed that the task would help others (Experiment 1) or believed that their efforts could benefit them (Experiment 2) performed better on a subsequent test of self-control than individuals who were depleted and lower in motivation. The results of Experiment 3 replicated these findings and suggested that depletion only affects performance on tasks that require self-control; tasks that are difficult but do not require self-control are immune to the effects of depletion. Hence, depleted individuals may compensate for their lack of self-control resources when sufficiently motivated. The results may help explain the nature of self-control strength.