ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the psychology and neuroscience of self-control, focusing specifically on one of its important facets: its apparent refractory period. Neuroscience may be a particularly effective lens to understand a construct as complex as self-control because it allows for explanations that penetrate surface differences and uncover mechanistic similarities. The resource account has been highly influential and has informed most subfields of psychology and human neuroscience, as well as the related fields of behavioral economics, organizational behavior, and consumer behavior. Researchers have now conducted studies of ego depletion using the two predominant human neuroimaging modalities: electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Choice and autonomy also eliminate or reduce the ego depletion effect relative to autonomy-undermining or forced conditions. The vast majority of the ego depletion literature involves tasks that have little intrinsic value for participants.
