ego depletion/decision fatigue/executive dysfunction

[kaberett]

okay so -- ego depletion is, broadly, the idea that self-control is a finite resource and if you do a thing that takes a lot of self-control you will have less of it left for subsequent tasks within [time-frame]; a recent-ish replication study found that it's not actually an effect that... exists.

what I am curious about, and lacking (ha) the focus etc to track down for myself, is: how does this conception of self-control interact with issues of decision fatigue and executive dysfunction? is self-control being formulated as meaningfully distinct from decision-making?

thank you in advance for indulging my idle curiosity <3

Comments

[emef]

hi! kinda barging in to this post a week later but I had a thought about it -

I was initially confused about the study until it occurred to me that I only think about the concept of self-control when I'm actively struggling with it. But it is always present, right? And it makes sense that when it is used repeatedly it would, if anything, become easier. Like sitting in class and resisting the urge to say aloud everything going through your mind (which we do as 5 year olds and then slowly learn not to do, and by the time we're in university it requires pretty much no effort whatever.) Or having the self control to, say, not just grab food at the grocery store and start eating it. Which are things that are so practiced that we don't actively think about them as self-control.

So yeah I thought, maybe the interaction between self-control, decision fatigue and executive dysfunction happens specifically at the moment of *struggling* with self-control, so like, when you're actively thinking about it.