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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice

Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice

Published on: June 5, 2016

Conserving self-control strength.

Mark Muraven¹, Dikla Shmueli, Edward Burkley

¹Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222, USA. muraven@albany.edu

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

|August 30, 2006

Summary

When self-control resources are low, individuals conserve them if they anticipate future demands. This conservation leads to poorer performance on immediate tasks but better performance on subsequent tasks requiring self-control.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Cognitive Science
Behavioral Economics

Background:

Self-control relies on limited resources that can be depleted with use.
Anticipating future demands on self-control influences current resource management strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how the anticipation of future self-control needs affects current self-control resource allocation.
To examine the performance consequences of conserving self-control strength.

Main Methods:

Four experiments were conducted involving participants who underwent depletion tasks.
Participants' expectations of future self-control exertion were manipulated.
Performance on intervening self-control tasks was measured.

Main Results:

Depleted participants anticipating future self-control demands performed worse on intervening tasks.
Conserving self-control resources led to improved performance on tasks for which resources were conserved.

Conclusions:

Individuals strategically conserve self-control resources when anticipating future needs, impacting immediate performance.
The conservation of resource model provides a framework for understanding self-control dynamics.