THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 1

How can radishes and cookies help us better understand willpower and decision-making?

September 1

Subject:  Willpower/Ego Depletion - Radishes and Cookies

Event:  Publication of Roy F. Baumeister’s book Willpower:  Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, 2011.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. -Vince Lombardi

On September 1, 2011, psychologist Roy F. Baumeister released his book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.  Baumeister and his colleagues at Case Western Reserve University performed a classic study on willpower, which came to be known as “The Radish and Cookie Experiment.”  All the subjects in the experiment were told that they were being tested on taste perception.  To ensure that each participant arrived with an empty stomach, they were asked to skip a meal prior to the experiment. 

 

As participants entered the room, they smelled the aroma of freshly baked cookies.  On a table in front of them, they found two plates:  one of cookies and one of white radishes.  Half of the study participants were designated as “radish eaters,” which meant that although they could see and smell the cookies, they were limited to only eating radishes.  The other half of the participants were designated as the “cookie-eaters” and were allowed only cookies.

Image by Cassia P. from Pixabay

In the second phase of the experiment, all subjects participated in a puzzle-solving activity.  They were told that they could take as much time as they wanted to solve the puzzles; however, what they were not told is that the puzzles were impossible to solve.  The researchers then carefully recorded how much time the puzzle solvers worked before giving up.

While the cookie-eaters spent an average of 19 minutes working on the puzzles, the radish-eaters lasted an average of just 8 minutes.

The conclusion that Beumesiter drew from this study is that the radish eaters gave up sooner than the cookie eaters because of what he called ego depletion (AKA decision fatigue).  According to this theory, willpower is a limited resource.  The radish-eaters, for example, used up their reserve of mental energy resisting the tempting cookies.  This reduced their powers of self-control and resulted in their giving up so much sooner than the cookie-eaters, who maintained their stores of mental energy (1).

Reporting on the study in The Atlantic magazine, writer Hans Villarica said, 

In the psychology world, the key finding of this seemingly silly study was a breakthrough: self-control is a general strength that's used across different sorts of tasks  -- and it could be depleted. This proved that self-regulation is not a skill to be mastered or a rote function that can be performed with little consequence. It's like using a muscle: After exercising it, it loses its strength, gets fatigued, and becomes ineffectual, at least in the short-term. (2)

Baumeister’s study provides new insight into metacognition - our ability to think about our own thinking.  If we have been exerting mental effort in making decisions, problem-solving, or delaying gratification, we should understand that ego depletion will reduce our ability to efficiently take on the next challenge we’re faced with.  This is why some famous decision makers such as Steve Jobs and Barack Obama were known to wear basically the same outfit every day.  They realized that making decisions -- even mundane decisions about what to wear or what to eat -- sapped their mental capacity, so they consciously made an effort to reduce the number of decisions they needed to make each day. 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is ego depletion, and how does the contrast between radishes and cookies in the experiment help us understand its effects?

Challenge - How to Just Do It:  Write a public service announcement (PSA) that gives the audience a tip on how to increase willpower.  We all face the daily struggle of getting ourselves to do what we need or should do, instead of what we want to do.  What is a specific tip that will help your audience delay gratification, fight procrastination, and increase motivation?

Also On This Day:

-September 1, 1928:  Author Robert M. Pirsig was born on this day.  He received 121 rejections for his novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  Pirsig persevered.  The book he wrote in 1968 about a motorcycle trip that he and his son took from Minnesota to San Francisco was finally published in 1974.  Not only was the book published it achieved cult status, selling more than five million copies.  Typical of someone with an indefatigable spirit, Pirsig reframed his challenges as opportunities to learn, saying, “If your mind is truly, profoundly stuck, then you may be much better off than when it was loaded with ideas.”

-September 1, 1939:  It is said that the first casualty of war is the truth, which is especially true in the case of World War II.  The six-year war began on this day under false pretenses when Germany invaded Poland.  As justification for the invasion, the Germans used false flag operations the night before, concocting a fake narrative that one of their radio stations had been attacked by the Poles.

-September 1, 1953:  On this day, a 27-year-old man named Henry Gustav Milaison underwent a medical procedure in Hartford, Connecticut that would eventually make him the most famous patient in the history of neuroscience and psychology.  After suffering frequent and severe epileptic seizures for more than 15 years, H.M. was so desperate for relief that he agreed to undergo a radical surgery where his hippocampus and amygdala were removed from both hemispheres of his brain.  After his surgery, Milaison’s seizures stopped; however, the negative side effect of his surgery was that he could no longer form new memories (3).

Sources:

1- Walton, Greg and Carol Dweck.  “Willpower:  It’s in Your Head.”  New York Times, 26 Nov. 2011.

2- Villarica, Hans. “The Chocolate-and-Radish Experiment That Birthed the Modern Conception of Willpower.”  The Atlantic  9 April 2012.

3-Mo Costandi, Mo.  “Science’s Memory Man.” The Guardian 18 October 2010. 

THINKER'S ALMANAC - January 10

What can a Roman emperor teach us about decision making?

Subject: Decision Fatigue/Ego Depletion - Caesar Crosses the Rubicon

Event:  Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, 49 B.C.

 

On this day in 49 B.C., Julius Caesar made a momentous decision that transformed a small Italian river into a powerful metaphor.  

Prior to 49 B.C., Caesar served as conquering Roman general, expanding the Roman Empire as far north as Britain.  His most notable conquest came in Gaul, the area of Europe that today includes France, Belgium, and Switzerland.  By winning the Gallic wars, Caesar made Gaul a Roman province and established himself as its governor.  

Although Caesar expanded the territory of the Roman republic, his rivals feared his ambition and envied his success.  Caesar’s most notable foe was a rival Roman general named Pompey.  In January 49 B.C., Pompey convinced the Roman Senate to send a message to Caesar, commanding him to leave his army and return to Rome.  

                                    Julius Caesar - Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay 

This message is what led to Caesar’s faithful decision to cross the Rubicon River.  He knew that returning to Rome alone without his army would surely lead to his demise.  Caesar also knew that taking his army across the Rubicon and into Italy was against Roman law and was essentially a proclamation of civil war. Knowing the consequences of his actions and that there would be no turning back, Caesar boldly led his army across the river as he uttered, “The die is cast!” — a gambling metaphor that means once a player throws (casts) the dice (plural form of die), he has reached a point of no return.

Caesar’s bold gamble paid off.  He defeated Pompey, and when he eventually arrived at the gates of Rome, he was proclaimed dictator for life (1). 

 

Caesar’s Rubicon has become a metaphor in our language, but it has also become a subject of study by psychologists interested in how we make decisions.  In the modern world, it seems that each of us is making more and more decisions each day, decisions that require mental effort.  Social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister coined the term ego depletion, to describe the way that making decisions saps us of mental energy. 

To understand the decision-making process, researchers break it into three phases:  the pre-decision phase, the decision phase, and the post-decision phase. In a study done at the University of Minnesota, researchers looked at each of these phases by examining the way that subjects thought about computers.  The pre-decision group was tasked with studying the advantages and disadvantages of different computer accessories; however, they were not asked to make any final decisions.  The post-decision group was given the task of configuring a computer, based on predetermined specifications.  The decision group was tasked not only with determining the best features for a computer but also with choosing them.

   

After completing their tasks, all subjects were given tests measuring their 

self-control.  By far, the decision group was most depleted.  It turns out that the act of making the decision was the most fatiguing.  As John Tierney explained in his article in The New York Times, 

The experiment showed that crossing the Rubicon is more tiring than anything that happens on either bank — more mentally fatiguing than sitting on the Gaul side contemplating your options or marching on Rome once you’ve crossed. As a result, someone without Caesar’s willpower is liable to stay put.

Studies completed on decision fatigue and ego depletion reveal that we don’t have unlimited stores of mental energy.  The more decisions we make, the less energy and willpower we have for additional decisions; furthermore, the more decisions we make the higher the likelihood that the quality of those decisions will be reduced.  Just as running with our legs or lifting with our arms fatigues our muscles, decision-making fatigues our minds.  You might consider this, for example, the next time you have a choice whether to make a doctor’s appointment in the morning versus the afternoon.  Chances are the quality of your doctor’s decision making ability will be diminished in the afternoon as a result of the multiple decisions she made earlier in the day (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How can knowing about decision fatigue and ego depletion increase the likelihood of making decisions worthy of a Roman emperor?

Challenge - Casting the Die:  Caesar’s decision to cross the Rubicon was a big one.  What is another major decision from history, and why would you argue it was so important?

Sources:

1-Eye Witness to History.com. Julius Caesar Crosses the Rubicon.

2-Tierney, John.  “Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?” The New York Times 17 August 2011.