Evolutionary Psychology Lecture 1: Willpower: Self-Control, Decision Fatigue, and Energy Depletion

About

A new understanding of how people control themselves has emerged from the past decade of research studies. Self-control depends on a limited energy supply, and each person's willpower fluctuates during the day as various events deplete and then replenish it. Decision making and creative initiative also deplete thesame willpower supply, while eating and sleeping can restore it. Some circumstances propel people to perform well despite depleted willpower, including power and leadership roles, local incentives, and personal beliefs. People with high self-control specialize less in resisting temptation than avoiding it.

"The Cultural Animal" Dr R. Baumeister's book available from the CERN Library.

NB! Webcast NO, recording YES. Just watch the Indico event pages and the link to the recording will appear a few days after the lectures.

Lecturer's bio:

Roy F. Baumeister is currently professor of psychology at the University of Queensland, also linked to Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from Princeton in 1978 and did a postdoctoral fellowship in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley. He spent over two decades at Case Western Reserve University. He has also worked at the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, the Max-Planck-Institute, the VU Free University of Amsterdam, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Russell Sage Foundation, the University of Bamberg (Germany), and Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Baumeister's research spans multiple topics, including self and identity, self-regulation, interpersonal rejection and the need to belong, sexuality and gender, aggression, self-esteem, meaning, and self-presentation. He has received research grants from the National Institutes of Health and from the Templeton Foundation. He has over 650 publications, and his 38 books include Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty, The Cultural Animal, Meanings of Life, and the…