Book
Baumeister RF, Tierney J. Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. New York: Penguin Press; 2011. 304 p. ISBN: 978-1594203077.
Why we cite it
The most widely read popularization of the ego depletion model — the theory that willpower operates like a muscle that can be fatigued by overuse and replenished by glucose and rest. While this book provides the conceptual vocabulary used throughout the project's willpower-related companions, the ego depletion model has faced significant replication challenges since 2016, and the project's approach accordingly emphasizes environment design and identity-based strategies over willpower reliance. Multi-lab replications (2,141 participants across multiple labs; 3,531 participants across 36 labs) failed to find the ego depletion effect, and analysis of 165 articles (429 studies) found 78% showed evidence of bias and low replicability. While the specific "limited resource" mechanism is now disputed, the practical observations about fatigue and decision-making remain relevant, and the project uses this citation primarily to explain why willpower-based approaches fail and to motivate environment-based alternatives.
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