In 1998, the psychologist Roy Baumeister introduced the “strength” model of self-control. It’s a slightly misleading name, since the model attempts to describe the weakness of the will, why people so easily succumb to temptation and impulse. In Baumeister’s influential paper – it’s since been cited more than 2500 times – he and colleagues describe several simple experiments that expose our mental frailties. In one trial, subjects forced to eat radishes instead of chocolate candies gave up far sooner when asked to solve an impossible puzzle. In another trial, people told to suppress their emotions while watching a tragic scene from Terms of Endearment solved significantly fewer anagrams than those who watched a funny video instead. The lesson, writes Baumeister et al., is that the ego is easily depleted, a limited resource quickly exhausted by minor acts of self-control.

It’s a compelling theory, as it seems to explain many of our human imperfections. It’s why a long day at work often leads to a pint of ice cream on the couch and why we get grumpy and distracted whenever we miss a meal. Because the will is so feeble, we must learn to pick our battles, exerting power only when it counts. In a particularly clever follow-up experiment, published in 2007, Baumeister and colleagues showed that a variety of typical self-control tasks led to lower glucose levels in the blood. (The mind, it seems, consumes more energy when attempting to restrain itself.) Not surprisingly, giving “depleted” subjects a glass of sweet lemonade improved their subsequent performance on yet another self-control task. However, depleted subjects given lemonade sweetened with fake sugar experienced no benefits. Saccharine might trick the tongue, but it can’t help your frontal lobes.

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