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How Willpower Works · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from How Stuff Works
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Speaker 1: this one. Yeah, alright, all that's out of the way, right. Um, So, Chuck,
1:33
Speaker 1: you're doing good, You're feeling well. I'm not feeling great,
1:36
Speaker 1: but you know, yeah, you're ready to be done. No,
1:39
Speaker 1: I'm ready to talk about willpower though, because it is
1:42
Speaker 1: a topic that I struggle with, as do most people.
1:45
Speaker 1: I think, like you struggle with the topic, or you
1:47
Speaker 1: struggle with willpower. I think everybody struggles with willpower. Oh yeah, well,
1:50
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, um, I think you're absolutely right.
1:53
Speaker 1: There is a very famous guy named Plato, famous Greek
1:57
Speaker 1: philosopher Plato. Plato, Plato, yes not Plato, right, um, And
2:03
Speaker 1: Plato decided well suggested that the entire human experience, that
2:11
Speaker 1: the sum of human existence could be basically nailed down
2:18
Speaker 1: with just this. You have a higher self and a
2:21
Speaker 1: lower self and your purpose for living is to overcome
2:28
Speaker 1: the usually more powerful urges of the lower self in
2:32
Speaker 1: order to fulfill the goals of the higher self. I
2:36
Speaker 1: am down without it makes uttering complete sense. I don't
2:40
Speaker 1: know about the reason for living, but the struggle man
2:43
Speaker 1: struggle or at least okay, Yeah, like that's if you're born.
2:47
Speaker 1: You're going to face that, but you're going to face
2:49
Speaker 1: it in varying degrees because, as we found, willpower, which
2:53
Speaker 1: is what you use to get over your lower urges
2:57
Speaker 1: and pursue your higher goals. Um, it comes in differing
3:01
Speaker 1: amounts for differing people, different people. Yeah, and it. And
3:05
Speaker 1: Robert Lamb wrote the original article from house Stuff Works
3:08
Speaker 1: from Stuff to Blow your Mind, and he points out
3:10
Speaker 1: that we're at odds with our own, uh nature, as
3:15
Speaker 1: we have evolved here on the planet because you know,
3:17
Speaker 1: we craved sugary sweet things because sugar gave us lots
3:22
Speaker 1: of energy back in the day, and back in the
3:24
Speaker 1: day they didn't have little debby cakes within hands reach
3:28
Speaker 1: at all times. So we're sort of at odds with ourselves.
3:31
Speaker 1: And he points out sexually as well, um, we evolved
3:35
Speaker 1: to spread the seed and procreate as much as possible
3:38
Speaker 1: to ensure the survival of the species. And um, nowadays
3:43
Speaker 1: you can't really do that stuff, or if you do,
3:45
Speaker 1: you're a flander or a jerk or your spreading disease
3:50
Speaker 1: and your public health nuisance. Yeah. So, um, we're at
3:53
Speaker 1: odds with ourselves, with our very existence. Yeah, and not
3:56
Speaker 1: only internally, but you make the point, um as a
3:59
Speaker 1: side as well. I mean, society and evolution tussle. So
4:03
Speaker 1: you can make the case that society represents our higher
4:05
Speaker 1: self and you know, are what we are, basic instincts
4:09
Speaker 1: that we've evolved to are are lower selves. So that's
4:13
Speaker 1: what's going on. And it's will power, will power that
4:16
Speaker 1: will get us over the bumps that come along in
4:21
Speaker 1: life inevitably. Yeah. And if I think most people relate
4:24
Speaker 1: will power to things like eating or going to the gym,
4:27
Speaker 1: or indulging in uh uh sexual proclivities and things like that,
4:33
Speaker 1: But I think it's broader than that. In general. I
4:36
Speaker 1: think it's the will to, like Plato said, to strive too,
4:40
Speaker 1: I guess, do the right thing. Yeah, by yourself, by others,
4:44
Speaker 1: by society at large. Right. And I guess also, um,
4:47
Speaker 1: how often you come up against that? How often you
4:50
Speaker 1: have to exercise willpower because you you just hit it
4:54
Speaker 1: on the head. Will Power is the act of making
4:56
Speaker 1: a decision. You're deciding to do something or not to
5:00
Speaker 1: do something. Um, how often you do that it does
5:03
Speaker 1: depend on how you define the world around you, Like,
5:07
Speaker 1: are these things you know? Are you surrounded by temptations
5:10
Speaker 1: that you have to ward off all the time and
5:12
Speaker 1: you're paying attention to it and they're always closing in? Uh?
5:15
Speaker 1: If you like that, then you're going to exercise your
5:18
Speaker 1: willpower a lot. If you don't see the world as temptations,
5:22
Speaker 1: you give into them all the time, you're not going
5:24
Speaker 1: to If you look at the world as something that
5:26
Speaker 1: you can handle, you're probably not gonna have to exercise
5:29
Speaker 1: your willpower too much then either. But it's all they're all.
5:32
Speaker 1: Those are three different ways of of living and they
5:35
Speaker 1: all are I guess described by willpower and how you
5:39
Speaker 1: use it. Yeah, that's a good point. Um. Robert h
5:44
Speaker 1: makes a point that has backed up somewhat by science,
5:47
Speaker 1: actually completely by science. The and he he puts in
5:51
Speaker 1: terms of a video game, which makes sense that if
5:53
Speaker 1: you were a video game and you have a willpower meter,
5:57
Speaker 1: that that willpower meter is replenished and depleted on a daily,
6:03
Speaker 1: probably hourly basis. And the more you uh use your
6:07
Speaker 1: willpower and say, you know what, I'm not going to
6:09
Speaker 1: have that little debby cake, Your little willpower meter goes
6:12
Speaker 1: down and it depletes itself, so you're not going to
6:16
Speaker 1: have as much willpower maybe for the next decision. Right.
6:20
Speaker 1: It's really interesting. Yeah, that's um pretty new. Our understanding
6:24
Speaker 1: of willpower like that is very new. The first guy
6:27
Speaker 1: to really kind of put it out like that was
6:28
Speaker 1: Freud Um and he basically said, uh, you we have
6:34
Speaker 1: this thing called willpower. We have an ego. Yeah, that's
6:37
Speaker 1: that's what the Freudians associate with willpowers, the ego, and
6:43
Speaker 1: your ego is this finite thing. It has a finite
6:46
Speaker 1: energy reserve. It uses energy, and therefore it can be sapped.
6:49
Speaker 1: And then Freud fell out of fashion, and um, everybody
6:53
Speaker 1: just kind of stopped looking at willpower that way. And
6:56
Speaker 1: uh it wasn't until in Florida State University psychologist named
7:00
Speaker 1: Roy uh Baumeister the bomb he uh he figured out
7:06
Speaker 1: through this test using chocolate and radishes. I believe that, um, you,
7:13
Speaker 1: if you are staving off temptation using willpower, you actually
7:18
Speaker 1: do terribly on like another test of willpower. Yeah, they
7:23
Speaker 1: used persistence tests UM basically puzzles that you have to
7:28
Speaker 1: just keep at it and keep at it's not something
7:29
Speaker 1: you could complete immediately, And offered some people chocolate chip
7:34
Speaker 1: cookies and other chocolate treats of their liking and offered
7:37
Speaker 1: other people radishes instead, which is not a fair fight, right,
7:42
Speaker 1: I mean, he really stacked the deck like maybe a radish,
7:45
Speaker 1: a shaved radish in a salad or something. But if
7:47
Speaker 1: all you're looking at is a plate of radish, then yeah,
7:50
Speaker 1: I would take the cookie. So what he found out though,
7:53
Speaker 1: was the people who ate the radishes had more trouble
7:57
Speaker 1: completing the test. I guess because I guess the ideas
7:59
Speaker 1: they're using up all their willpower to not eat the cookie,
8:02
Speaker 1: so they don't have time for the test the persistence.
8:05
Speaker 1: And there was also a another kind of follow up
8:09
Speaker 1: study a few years after that by um the the
8:12
Speaker 1: University of Iowa professor with the greatest name of all
8:15
Speaker 1: of the faculty there, Baba shiv Um and uh Dr
8:20
Speaker 1: shiv Um, had a uh basically tested willpower by saying
8:26
Speaker 1: this group is going to remember a two digit number,
8:29
Speaker 1: and this group is gonna remember a seven digit number
8:32
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna test their willpower um by tempting
8:35
Speaker 1: them with chocolate cake and uh. Dr Shiv found that
8:38
Speaker 1: there was the people who were using their working memory
8:42
Speaker 1: their cognitive capacity to remember the seven digit number had
8:46
Speaker 1: a harder time resisting. So it basically proves that we
8:50
Speaker 1: use our working memory to resist temptation. And I guess
8:53
Speaker 1: it's something like reminding yourself, you know, at the at
8:57
Speaker 1: the forefront of your mind, not to do something, you know,
9:00
Speaker 1: until the temptation pasts. Who knows, Yeah, maybe I had
9:03
Speaker 1: that cookie yesterday, so man, I can't eat it today.
9:06
Speaker 1: Or we use our working memory to remind ourselves of
9:09
Speaker 1: our long term goals in the face of a short
9:12
Speaker 1: term reward. Well, that's one of the big keys I think. Yeah,
9:15
Speaker 1: and uh, that's something Robert hits on, which is I
9:18
Speaker 1: want that cookie now, and I know bikini seasons coming up,
9:22
Speaker 1: and you've seen me in a bikini. Josh, it's not pretty.
9:25
Speaker 1: I will never get that out of my memory, working
9:28
Speaker 1: memory or other one that bikini. And but that's sort
9:33
Speaker 1: of what we're at odds with is the short term
9:36
Speaker 1: I think humans as a group tend to enjoy the
9:42
Speaker 1: short short term pleasures and if you truly learn to
9:46
Speaker 1: conquer that in in uh lieu of long term gain,
9:49
Speaker 1: that's when you're like you're winning, is Charlie Sheen would say,
9:52
Speaker 1: right exactly, Although Charlie Sheen is not exactly one who's
9:55
Speaker 1: known to exercise the willpower. No, you know, that was
9:59
Speaker 1: a really ad person to tap for that, But well
10:02
Speaker 1: I think that's the opposite he was. He thought winning
10:04
Speaker 1: was the short term game. Yeah, I guess yeah, yeah,
10:09
Speaker 1: people like when you guys record this, but it's been
10:12
Speaker 1: I think today might be the very day where you
10:15
Speaker 1: could get away with it. So it was perfect by
10:17
Speaker 1: the way. Um, so from all these tests, like when
10:22
Speaker 1: Baumeister um put his study ego depletion colon is the
10:28
Speaker 1: active self a limited resource, it just basically kicked off
10:32
Speaker 1: the slew of follow up studies from Dr Shiv and others,
10:36
Speaker 1: and um. One of the things that they found was
10:39
Speaker 1: that you can kind of watch people exercise willpower on
10:42
Speaker 1: the old Wonder machine. Yeah yeah, um. Using m r
10:46
Speaker 1: s they put people in and had them think about,
10:51
Speaker 1: I guess a suite or a health food and decide
10:55
Speaker 1: between them and cal Tech. Yeah, And they found that
10:59
Speaker 1: the venture. Amedial prefrontal cortex lights up when you're making
11:03
Speaker 1: that decision when you're considering it, which made sense. They
11:06
Speaker 1: I think they kind of expected that, but they were
11:08
Speaker 1: also surprised to find that the Dorso lateral prefrontal cortex um,
11:13
Speaker 1: which is located a little further back, Um, that lit
11:17
Speaker 1: up as well. And they think that that has lit
11:20
Speaker 1: up for the people who made the good decision only
11:22
Speaker 1: thank you. And they think that that's maybe part of
11:25
Speaker 1: your that's part of the working memory where you're like, no,
11:28
Speaker 1: I can't eat that, because that's tapping into that higher
11:33
Speaker 1: self goal pursuit. That's the Dorso lateral prefrontal cortex. Right,
11:39
Speaker 1: you did a nice job there, by the way, thanks,
12:09
Speaker 1: uh so. The bomber also went on to say that,
12:12
Speaker 1: um he could. He compares the willpower, your own willpower
12:16
Speaker 1: to a muscle or something like a muscle, and you
12:19
Speaker 1: can deplete it, Like he said, if you overwork your muscles,
12:22
Speaker 1: you're just gonna deplete your muscles and be worn out
12:24
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Or you can exercise
12:28
Speaker 1: that muscle in a in a healthy way and make
12:31
Speaker 1: it stronger in the long term. Right, Um, do you
12:34
Speaker 1: do this after reading this, a third realized that I
12:38
Speaker 1: actually kind of exercised willpower all the time. What you
12:41
Speaker 1: I think you especially do so like, for example, I
12:46
Speaker 1: have a mail key that I used to go get
12:48
Speaker 1: the mail, right and we keep it in our car,
12:52
Speaker 1: and I had to go to the car and get
12:54
Speaker 1: the mail key and then go get the mail. And
12:55
Speaker 1: it was cold out yesterday, and then on the way
12:58
Speaker 1: back I could have just take in the mail key
13:00
Speaker 1: inside with me and taking it back to the car,
13:03
Speaker 1: and the next time I went to the car again
13:05
Speaker 1: it was very cold. But instead I walked up a
13:07
Speaker 1: flight of stairs, put the mail key into the car,
13:10
Speaker 1: and then went back home. So you're you're you made
13:14
Speaker 1: that decision and you struggled with it, even if in
13:16
Speaker 1: a minor way. Yes, I did it specifically because there
13:20
Speaker 1: was no reason whatsoever for me to do that rationally,
13:23
Speaker 1: and as far as common sense went, there was no
13:26
Speaker 1: there's no purpose to it. But by doing it, I
13:29
Speaker 1: basically just exercised my willpower. It was something I didn't
13:32
Speaker 1: really want to do, but it wasn't a big deal,
13:34
Speaker 1: but it was I could like doing that accumulates. Yeah,
13:40
Speaker 1: I think I think you and I are really different
13:42
Speaker 1: in that way. I see you as someone who actively
13:45
Speaker 1: works that muscle a lot on a daily basis, and
13:49
Speaker 1: I don't enough and not that I just have no willpower,
13:52
Speaker 1: but I don't give it, give decisions like that enough consideration.
13:56
Speaker 1: Does that make sense completely? I was like, yeah, I'll
13:59
Speaker 1: just go upstairs and the key on the coffee table,
14:01
Speaker 1: which a sane person she kind of has that that thought.
14:05
Speaker 1: I think that puts you in the same camp. Yeah,
14:07
Speaker 1: but that doesn't ensure that I'm making good decisions for
14:10
Speaker 1: my life, you know. You know, but I mean I
14:12
Speaker 1: don't think you're making bad ones. But it's good to
14:14
Speaker 1: self reflect, you know, Yeah, I do kind of It's
14:18
Speaker 1: kind of fun. You know, it's like a game. Yeah,
14:21
Speaker 1: I want to you know, It's it's like how Ramrod
14:24
Speaker 1: Street can I stay in? You know? That's what I'm
14:25
Speaker 1: building towards. Uh so um. Another thing Robert points out
14:30
Speaker 1: from the science side of things is as far as
14:33
Speaker 1: giving into the short term in favor of the long term,
14:36
Speaker 1: is glucose plays a big part in that. And I
14:39
Speaker 1: think they found that a quick um shot of sugar,
14:43
Speaker 1: I don't think a whole lot can sometimes stave off
14:46
Speaker 1: or build up that willpower. Reserve in the term. Yeah,
14:49
Speaker 1: it's like, uh, you you were talking about how we
14:52
Speaker 1: have like a UM willpower bar, and every time we
14:55
Speaker 1: were this temptation is depleted a little more and more.
14:57
Speaker 1: They found that a shot of glucose replenishes the willpower bar.
15:01
Speaker 1: So is that in lieu of like, hey boy, I
15:03
Speaker 1: really want that cupcake, but let me have the juice
15:05
Speaker 1: box instead. That's the irony of it, is giving into
15:08
Speaker 1: that cupcake may help you exercise your willpower with other
15:13
Speaker 1: stuff later further on. Can't that weird? But yeah, I
15:16
Speaker 1: mean if you had something healthier, that would be the
15:19
Speaker 1: better choice. But the point is is like any kind
15:22
Speaker 1: of shot of glucos has been shown to UM to
15:25
Speaker 1: to re up your your willpower. And this was very
15:28
Speaker 1: much poop pooed at first, this idea, UM, I think Baumeister,
15:32
Speaker 1: This is really great article by John Tierney in New
15:35
Speaker 1: York Times magazine. It's from UM the August before last.
15:38
Speaker 1: It's called do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue? Our buddy
15:41
Speaker 1: Chad loves this proselytized this article. Remember, okay, this is
15:46
Speaker 1: the one, so I strongly recommend everybody to read. It's
15:49
Speaker 1: a good one. But um and and it it talks
15:51
Speaker 1: about Baumeister like thinking that you know, glucose has something
15:55
Speaker 1: to do with this um and it was poop pooed
15:58
Speaker 1: at first, because everybody knows the brain uses the same
16:00
Speaker 1: amount of energy pretty much all day long. So that
16:04
Speaker 1: didn't make any sense. Like if you're if you're ego
16:06
Speaker 1: depleted and you're you're suffering from some sort of willpower fatigue,
16:10
Speaker 1: but your brain still using the same amount of energy,
16:12
Speaker 1: those two don't jibe. Again with the m r I.
16:15
Speaker 1: What they found was somebody suffering from ego depletion from
16:18
Speaker 1: willpower fatigue who took a shot of glue coast or
16:23
Speaker 1: whatever UM. Their brains lit up in areas that had
16:29
Speaker 1: to do with exercising will power. So while your brain
16:32
Speaker 1: was using the same amount of energy, it was using
16:33
Speaker 1: them in different places when your willpower was fatigued. And
16:37
Speaker 1: that gluecoast basically was like spinach to popeye for that
16:40
Speaker 1: part of your brain that's charged with exercising willpower. Isn't
16:44
Speaker 1: that Yeah? So what do you carry on a packet
16:47
Speaker 1: sugar with you at all times? Come on sugar right now? Um? Also, uh,
16:53
Speaker 1: the in that same article they talk about this uh,
16:56
Speaker 1: this kind of landmark study of an Israeli parole board,
17:00
Speaker 1: and um, they found that you if you were a
17:04
Speaker 1: parole e and you came to them after it had
17:07
Speaker 1: been a while since a break or lunch or breakfast,
17:11
Speaker 1: your chances of being paroled dropped by like fifty or
17:14
Speaker 1: sixty oh if the parole board had not had breakfast,
17:18
Speaker 1: yes or no. If they if you came to them
17:20
Speaker 1: like right after things got started, after breakfast or after lunch,
17:25
Speaker 1: your chances of being paroled were like fifty to fifty
17:28
Speaker 1: six greater than people who came to them for identical
17:32
Speaker 1: crimes like a couple hours later. I'm sure that makes
17:35
Speaker 1: the criminals of the world feel pretty great. Yeah, exactly.
17:37
Speaker 1: So arbitrary. And they what they found is it's not laziness.
17:41
Speaker 1: It's not like physical fatigue where like you can tell
17:44
Speaker 1: you're tired. What our brains do is they employ the
17:47
Speaker 1: strategy where you you are, you become risk averse, like
17:52
Speaker 1: you don't want to make a decision, so you say,
17:55
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just gonna put this off. You're
17:56
Speaker 1: gonna go back to jail. I'm not going to grant
17:57
Speaker 1: your parole because that's risky behavior. To let you back
18:00
Speaker 1: out in the world, and I'm just I've made too
18:03
Speaker 1: many decisions today. But you're not thinking this. You just
18:05
Speaker 1: say parole to nine and you have no idea why.
18:07
Speaker 1: It just makes sense to you at the time. But
18:10
Speaker 1: if you had had some gluecoast that same instance, you
18:14
Speaker 1: may you may be like, well, yeah, I think you're
18:17
Speaker 1: you're ready to come back out in society. That reminds
18:20
Speaker 1: me of the band Rush, Yes, that we talked about before.
18:25
Speaker 1: I remember this from when I was a teenager. You
18:27
Speaker 1: know the lyric um Man, what song is it? If
18:30
Speaker 1: you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice?
18:33
Speaker 1: Fretty will Oh, yeah, that's from that song, of course.
18:36
Speaker 1: I think on the original album jacket it says if
18:39
Speaker 1: you choose not to decide, you cannot have made a choice.
18:42
Speaker 1: Is the right? Yeah? My brother and I used to
18:44
Speaker 1: laugh that. I think Neil Perd actually wrote a lot
18:46
Speaker 1: of the lyrics back then that Getty Lee dislike, you know,
18:49
Speaker 1: edged it out with events. But it's the complete opposite meanings.
18:52
Speaker 1: So it's interesting that at some point Rush, I guess
18:55
Speaker 1: that maybe a band argument or something. I'm glad Getty
18:58
Speaker 1: Lee won. Yeah, you you have made a choice. No,
19:01
Speaker 1: you cannot have made a choice. Just shut up, play drums.
19:03
Speaker 1: Your voice is weird. I remember hearing that the first time.
19:06
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, oh yeah, blew me away?
19:08
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, free will. I can't believe I didn't remember
19:11
Speaker 1: the name, Like, I can't think of the name of
19:13
Speaker 1: this song, but it's about free will? Was it red
19:17
Speaker 1: bar Chetta? All right? Oh? I didn't really fully get
19:22
Speaker 1: the the Stanford UH psychologist Walton and Dweck, and that
19:29
Speaker 1: is Dweck. It sounds like saying direct wrong. Um. I
19:33
Speaker 1: didn't fully get that that They they said that people
19:37
Speaker 1: UH who have will found willpower fatigue tend to slack
19:42
Speaker 1: off when they felt their resolve wavering, but then people
19:45
Speaker 1: who felt their resolve was limitless pressed on. I like that.
19:50
Speaker 1: Just I don't get the point there. It seems like
19:52
Speaker 1: a no brainer. Yeah, I think I think it is.
19:55
Speaker 1: You may just be looking too deeply. It was like
19:57
Speaker 1: what I was talking about earlier at the beginning, where
20:00
Speaker 1: like depending on how you see the world, like do
20:02
Speaker 1: you see the world is like, like you have willpower,
20:05
Speaker 1: so you can overcome any temptation, You're going to last longer.
20:09
Speaker 1: On tests of will power than somebody who is like, um,
20:13
Speaker 1: I'm feeling kind of weak today, you know, and then
20:15
Speaker 1: you're just gonna give in. Okay, So it is pretty simple. Yeah,
20:18
Speaker 1: all right, I thought it was a dummy. Not only
20:19
Speaker 1: is it simple, I managed to make it more complex
20:22
Speaker 1: and talk about it at length. Uh. They do know
20:26
Speaker 1: that people, generally there is some genetic component involved, Like
20:31
Speaker 1: if your parents are super self disciplined, then you were
20:34
Speaker 1: more likely to turn out that way, right. I found
20:36
Speaker 1: that to be true from friends of mine whose parents
20:38
Speaker 1: were like super self discipline and their kids kind of
20:41
Speaker 1: turned out that way too. Yeah, but I wonder, And
20:43
Speaker 1: Robert makes a point in the article like is it
20:46
Speaker 1: genetic or epigenetic? Yeah, I don't know, probably both. Yeah,
20:50
Speaker 1: I would think my guests, we just chose not to decide.
20:54
Speaker 1: We cannot have made a choice. Uh. And then the
20:57
Speaker 1: old marshmallow experiment this uh stand for not the prison experiment,
21:02
Speaker 1: but the marshmallow experiment from the nineteen sixties, very famous
21:06
Speaker 1: one where they placed these uh tortured these kids basically
21:10
Speaker 1: by placing a marshmallow in front of them and saying,
21:13
Speaker 1: if you hold off on eating that marshmallow in fifteen minutes,
21:16
Speaker 1: you will have to, And of course not many of
21:19
Speaker 1: the kids could hold out, but they found that the
21:21
Speaker 1: ones who did hold out for the second marshmallow went
21:24
Speaker 1: on in life to greater successes, at least if you
21:27
Speaker 1: count s a T scores as a measure of success,
21:30
Speaker 1: two points higher than the ones who chowed down on
21:34
Speaker 1: the marshmallow, and the ones who ate the marshmallow later
21:37
Speaker 1: on had struggles with relationships and stress and uh attention. Yeah,
21:43
Speaker 1: so I wonder if that has even do with like
21:45
Speaker 1: you know, O c D. I wonder as well, I
21:47
Speaker 1: wonder how much um of our modern problems are really
21:51
Speaker 1: just crises of willpower? Yeah, I wonder. Um there was
21:55
Speaker 1: a follow up to that sixties experiment. There's been a bunch,
21:58
Speaker 1: but there was one in at the University of Rochester
22:00
Speaker 1: that was carried out last year that um found we
22:05
Speaker 1: are more willing to exercise willpower if we think that
22:09
Speaker 1: what we're holding out for is actually going to happen,
22:11
Speaker 1: you know. Uh, And they did that by this is hilarious.
22:15
Speaker 1: It's funny. He studies with kids are always they're so
22:17
Speaker 1: cruel and funny. I mean, not the really truly cruel
22:21
Speaker 1: ones that like any psychological study that has the kids
22:24
Speaker 1: almost invariably has some cruel aspect to it, and this
22:28
Speaker 1: one was no, uh, was no exception. Basically, uh, they said,
22:33
Speaker 1: here's the control group, here's here's the experimental group, and
22:36
Speaker 1: the control group, we want to give you some extra
22:40
Speaker 1: art supplies. Let us go get them. And they came
22:42
Speaker 1: back with some extra art supplies. The experimental group. They said, hey,
22:46
Speaker 1: we're gonna get you some more art supplies. We'll be
22:48
Speaker 1: right back. And they came back. They're like, we don't
22:50
Speaker 1: have any more art supplies. We know you were really excited,
22:53
Speaker 1: but sorry, you're gonna have to make do with that
22:55
Speaker 1: old red pen. And then they tested them with the
22:58
Speaker 1: marshmallow experiment it and found that the ones who had
23:02
Speaker 1: gotten the art supplies, the promise hadn't been broken. Sure,
23:05
Speaker 1: they held out longer than the ones who had been
23:08
Speaker 1: lied to. Yeah, they're like, screw that, you're not bringing
23:11
Speaker 1: me to marshmallows, this marshmallow right now exactly, I'm gonna
23:14
Speaker 1: kick you in the shin afterwards too. I'll show you. Yeah,
23:17
Speaker 1: that's not cruel on the level. What was that one?
23:20
Speaker 1: The one kid, remember the that we talked about that
23:24
Speaker 1: was tested on like oh, kept in a closet. No,
23:28
Speaker 1: they tested fear conditioning and extension and the kid it
23:32
Speaker 1: was little Albert where they like they would put a
23:36
Speaker 1: bunny in his lap and then bang of metal with
23:39
Speaker 1: a hammer and scare the Jesus out of him. Right,
23:42
Speaker 1: And then they came to like fear rabbits, like there
23:45
Speaker 1: was a search for him, right, and they eventually found him,
23:47
Speaker 1: they thought, I think, so, I don't remember I wrote
23:49
Speaker 1: a blog post that I'll have to republish or whatever
23:52
Speaker 1: because it's been a while, I don't remember. But yeah,
23:54
Speaker 1: they figured out who it was pretty much. So this
23:57
Speaker 1: isn't on that level. No, no, no, this is just
23:59
Speaker 1: Marshmallows yesterday. Um. So, oh, there's one other point I
24:04
Speaker 1: wanted to bring up that I thought was pretty interesting
24:06
Speaker 1: and horrible from that John Tierney article. Um, where with
24:11
Speaker 1: with decision fatigue, with exercising willpower disproportionately affects the poor
24:17
Speaker 1: and they think that possibly now, uh, that poverty exists
24:21
Speaker 1: in a cycle because if you're a poor person, you
24:25
Speaker 1: have to exercise willpower, you have to make more decisions
24:28
Speaker 1: than somebody who has more resources, more money, like say
24:31
Speaker 1: you're walking through the grocery store. Um, you know, I
24:34
Speaker 1: want the soap and this food. If you're poor, you
24:37
Speaker 1: might have to say I want both, but I have
24:40
Speaker 1: to just buy one. I don't have enough for both,
24:42
Speaker 1: So how much is it going to be? And their
24:44
Speaker 1: willpower there there there, their resources of of willpower of
24:49
Speaker 1: decision making become fatigued a lot faster because they have
24:52
Speaker 1: to exercise it a lot more and they don't have
24:56
Speaker 1: the uh, the resources to get themselves out of poverty,
25:00
Speaker 1: to indulge or to like study or do you know,
25:05
Speaker 1: do more that they already have the deck stacked against
25:09
Speaker 1: them resource wise. But then you throw in this, this
25:12
Speaker 1: idea of willpower. Possibly that's that makes it even more difficulty. Boy,
25:18
Speaker 1: I never really thought about that. It's pretty interesting stuff.
25:21
Speaker 1: It makes you, It makes me, you know, you feel
25:23
Speaker 1: for him even more. Yeah, and it makes me feel
25:25
Speaker 1: bad when say, do I want the peanut butter ganash
25:29
Speaker 1: cupcake or the chocolate? You know what, Just go ahead
25:31
Speaker 1: and give me both, right exactly, Well, you can buy
25:34
Speaker 1: both and then just take one to somebody who's struggling
25:37
Speaker 1: in the grocery store trying to figure out they're gonna
25:39
Speaker 1: buy soap for food. It's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah,
26:12
Speaker 1: uh you got anything else? Man? No, this is this
26:15
Speaker 1: is a good one. Yeah. I like willpower. It's fun.
26:17
Speaker 1: Go out and exercise it in little ways. It's fun.
26:20
Speaker 1: Or don't either that or um strap of car battery
26:23
Speaker 1: to your inner thighs. It's just for fun. Uh okay. Well,
26:28
Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about willpower and read
26:30
Speaker 1: this good article by Robert Lamb, you can type in
26:33
Speaker 1: willpower in the search bar at how stuff works dot
26:36
Speaker 1: com and it will bring it up. And I said
26:37
Speaker 1: search bar. So it's time for a listener mail, Yeah, Josh. Quickly,
26:42
Speaker 1: before we do that, we need to say a special
26:44
Speaker 1: thank you to a fan of ours who helped us
26:49
Speaker 1: out with our Wikipedia page. Oh nice, thank you. And
26:52
Speaker 1: he was very cool and and his name and he's
26:55
Speaker 1: been mentioned on tech stuff evidently too. Oh well, this
26:57
Speaker 1: guy's a star and we're not gonna help that against him.
27:01
Speaker 1: And this is how he His name is felled A
27:03
Speaker 1: N t r I K s h yadav y A
27:08
Speaker 1: d A D And he says, you pronounce it won tricks.
27:13
Speaker 1: The tea is soft though, as in math son trin trip. Yeah,
27:19
Speaker 1: there you go, he he phonetically spelled out. He told
27:22
Speaker 1: me what it sounded like, and I still can't quite
27:24
Speaker 1: do it. So we just want to say thanks a
27:26
Speaker 1: lot for helping us with the Wikipedia page and now
27:30
Speaker 1: a listener mail that I'm gonna call. That's why sk
27:34
Speaker 1: can help you get ladies. This is from Todd in
27:38
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. Guys and Jerry, I've come to the conclusion
27:41
Speaker 1: that I may owe you a big thank you. Your
27:44
Speaker 1: podcast has created the impression, whether fiction or reality, that
27:48
Speaker 1: I am somehow a guy who knows about stuff with
27:51
Speaker 1: the ladies. My new girlfriend, in fact, mentions as one
27:54
Speaker 1: of my winning traits that I am often saying interesting
27:57
Speaker 1: things and this really interested me, so I asked her
28:01
Speaker 1: for some examples of things that I say, and it
28:04
Speaker 1: was notable that every example that she sided was something
28:07
Speaker 1: that I learned listening to your podcast at work. So
28:10
Speaker 1: it is quite possible, sirs, that you and your podcast
28:12
Speaker 1: made my baby fall in love with me. I'd like
28:16
Speaker 1: to shake your hands. Every single guy should listen to
28:19
Speaker 1: your podcasts because it may at least get you a
28:22
Speaker 1: second date. And that is Todd from Oklahoma City, who
28:25
Speaker 1: is banking on our knowledge to woo women. And I
28:31
Speaker 1: guess you got a girlfriend of it. Good going, Todd.
28:33
Speaker 1: Good for you. We're glad we could help. Man, we're married, dude,
28:36
Speaker 1: so we we live vicariously through these emails. That's not true. Well, no,
28:43
Speaker 1: I think it's great. I'm happy for Todd. I don't
28:45
Speaker 1: mean I live vicariously. I wish I would. No, No,
28:50
Speaker 1: I just mean like, that's great. I'm glad someone out
28:53
Speaker 1: there is getting a date because of this. Yeah. I
28:55
Speaker 1: love helping people find love connections. Yeah. As a matter
28:58
Speaker 1: of fact, we should do a speed dating episode. I
29:00
Speaker 1: wrote an article on it once and it's pretty neat. Yeah.
29:03
Speaker 1: My friend p J E met p j he uh
29:05
Speaker 1: he He just texted me yesterday and said, hey, this
29:07
Speaker 1: girl he does a lot of online dating. He said
29:10
Speaker 1: part of her profiles that she's like a huge fan
29:12
Speaker 1: of you guys. And I said data. Yeah, well I
29:15
Speaker 1: don't a data. Ye. There you go. You're doing it
29:18
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29:21
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29:24
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