The Sweet Taste of Success: the Presence of Glucose in the Oral Cavity Moderates the Depletion of Self-Control Resources

According to the resource-depletion model,self-control is a limited resource that is depleted after a period of exertion. evidence consistent with this model indicates that self-control relies on glucose metabolism and glucose supplementation to depleted individuals replenishes self-control resources. in five experiments,we tested an alternative hypothesis that glucose in the oral cavity counteracts the deleterious effects of self-control depletion. we predicted a glucose mouth rinse,as opposed to an artificially sweetened placebo rinse,would lead to better self-control after depletion. in studies 1 to 3,participants engaging in a depleting task performed significantly better on a subsequent self-control task after receiving a glucose mouth rinse,as opposed to participants rinsing with a placebo. studies 4 and 5 replicated these findings and demonstrated that the glucose mouth rinse had no effect on self-control in nondepleted participants. results are consistent with a neural rather than metabolic mechanism for the effect of glucose supplementation on self-control. © 2013 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.