Glucose mouth rinse refuels willpower

 

Mmm, mmm, glucose! (Photo credit: J. Star)

 

From the 18th September EurkAlert

 

Glucose mouth rinse refuels willpower

A wealth of research in social psychology has shown that willpower is a finite resource that depletes after a period of exertion, and many researchers have found that the metabolism of glucose can refuels a persons’s diminished self-control. A new set of studies suggest, however, that the mere presence of glucose in the mouth can counteract willpower depletion. Researchers had participants rinse their mouths with glucose or an artificially-sweetened placebo and compared results in self-control tasks.”The Sweet Taste of Success: The Presence of Glucose in the Oral Cavity Moderates the Depletion of Self-Control Resources,” Martin S. Hagger and Nikos L.D. Chatzisarantis, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming January 2013.

 

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