![]() Ironically, caloric restriction in dieting produces lower glucose, which undermines the willpower needed to resist food intake. Your brain uses about 20 percent of the energy your body consumes. Glucose is a vital part of willpower: Evidence shows that exerting willpower lowers blood sugar, which reduces the capacity for further self-control. As drinkers’ awareness declines, they lose self-control, so they eat more or smoke more as well. Intoxication reduces self-awareness and narrows the scope of attention, limiting the ability to attend to multiple cues. Intoxication reduces your resistance to temptation and weakens inhibitory control. This experience is known as blanking out, or choking under pressure. For example, even with the best preparation, the pressure and anxiety of a lengthy exam (or interview) often causes test takers’ reasoning abilities to slow or even shut down entirely. As a result, we lose the ability to be reflective, and begin to function on automatic default. Daily stress can cripple the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s executive function that moderates concentration, planning, decision-making, and judgment. Coping with stress involves using willpower to control behavior. In contrast, being deliberate allows one to see the overall context and be less concerned with sensation. This insight suggests that shoppers distracted by music or displays will be more likely to increase their impulse purchases. When our mind is preoccupied, our short-term mind guides our choices. ![]() In a moment of stress, we often forget the names of people we know well. ![]() The busier people are, the more likely they will behave impulsively. This explains why most diets are broken at night! Thus, at the end of a long day, people have fewer resources to overcome the urge to consume a tempting snack than at the beginning of the day. Making a series of decisions that involve conflict-trying to impress others, responding kindly to rude behavior, or planning a wedding-leads to ego depletion, and ego depletion leads to a loss of motivation. These are the five key factors that can temporarily weaken willpower and lead to impulsive reactions: ![]()
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