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Baumeister and colleagues' strength model of self-control continues to enjoy applications and attention.

The authors of the model have devised a checklist of points that can increase replication success.

Alternate theories about depletion include emphasis on more general cognitive fatigue.

From neuroscience comes a suggestion that what looks like depletion might be cognitive adaptation.

The strength model of willpower enjoys both supporters and critics, earning both influence and critique since its development in the mid-'90s. It is often cited in discussions around psychology’s “replication crisis.”

The simple idea at the heart of the theory is that self-regulation or self-control taps into a resource that is limited in energy, so our willpower can become depleted as we use it. The exhaustion of our self-regulatory faculties was termed “ego depletion.” The basic experimental structure would see participants perform one task that required willpower, such as the Stroop task or the antisaccade task, or a control task that did not. They would follow this up with a second task, wherein performance on the second task would be worse among those who did the willpower-dependent task in the first instance. Experiments reported that ego depletion not only led to decreased performance in tasks that required willpower but also impacted decision-making, rational thinking, planning ability, and other activities associated with executive function. Importantly, supporters of the theory report that ego depletion decreases the likelihood of good behavior.

Taking stock of the current state of affairs, in 2024, Roy Baumeister and his colleagues assessed the main challenges that had emerged in relation to the theory. One challenge was that ego depletion was less relevant than motivation; participants who were showing less willpower were, in fact, demotivated. A deeper challenge came by way of multi-site replications that failed to find significant effects. Baumeister and his colleagues respond to this by highlighting that as of 2022, there had been 36 major multi-site replications in the field of social psychology, and only 4, or 11 percent, of these had succeeded—one of which focused on ego depletion.

To increase the likelihood of experimental success, Baumeister and his colleagues compiled an eight-item checklist that includes pointers such as lengthening the time of ego depletion tasks and making the tasks relatively challenging. For control groups, the task cannot be boring, as this might inadvertently induce ego-depletion.

The importance of the intensity of the depletion task is reiterated by Dang et al. (2025). They used an ego depletion task that lasted between 30 and 40 minutes, and found robust evidence for depletion. This study was pre-registered and multi-site, with participants across three continents. Intriguingly, the authors of the study note that the antisaccade task involves both inhibition control (which one would expect relies on willpower) and substantial visual processing, opening the door to questions about whether this relates to a specific tiring of a self-control faculty, or more general fatigue. This line of questioning is explored by psychologist Michael Inzlicht.

A further challenge, by way of an alternate explanation, is presented by cognitive neuroscientist Alberto De Luca. Rather than ego depletion or fatigue, De Luca relies on the work of cognitive psychologist Bernhard Hommel to propose that what might look like a depletion is an adaptive switching of gears. One gear is persistent and is needed for steady climbing—the brain’s focus is narrow, and goals are at the center of attention. It is this gear that allows us to succeed at difficult and dogged tasks. A second gear instead is flexible and open; this gear is more conducive to integrating new information and is less goal-oriented. De Luca argues that this model is more aligned with current findings in neuroscience.

This ebb and flow of support and critique is science in action, and is a sign of a branch of knowledge that is functioning, rather than one in the midst of a crisis. The crisis ensued when ideas, theories, and results were being authoritatively claimed without being challenged, and a culture of passivity was unfolding.

It might also be both pragmatic and insightful to suggest that the cognitive faculties that are being tested when we try to self-regulate or control ourselves are varied, complex, and interwoven to the point that none of these theories are wholly incorrect.

What Is Self-Control?

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