Self-control: why people who score high resist temptation less often

Picture two people who both want to eat less sugar. One keeps chocolate in the drawer and refuses it ten times a day. The other does not buy chocolate. If you ask which of them has more self-control, most people point to the first. The research points to the second.

The Brief Self-Control Scale

In 2004 June Tangney, Roy Baumeister and Angie Luzio Boone published a 36-item self-control questionnaire and a short version with 13 items, the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS). Students with higher scores had better grades, fewer problems with alcohol and binge eating, better relationships and fewer psychological symptoms. The short version has since become one of the most used self-control measures in research.

Our self-control test (BSCS) uses the 13 BSCS items. The original asks how much each statement is like you. Our version uses a five-point scale from disagree to agree. Four describe self-control directly, for example "I am good at resisting temptation" and "I am able to work effectively toward long-term goals". Nine describe its absence, for example "I have a hard time breaking bad habits" and "I often act without thinking through all the alternatives". Those nine are scored in reverse, and a higher total means more self-control.

Not a fuel tank

For about fifteen years a popular idea held that willpower works like a fuel tank: every act of self-control uses some, and when the tank is empty you give in. The idea was called ego depletion. In 2016 a replication run in 23 laboratories, with over 2,000 participants, found an effect close to zero. The debate is not fully closed, but the simple tank picture no longer has strong support.

A different finding has held up better. In 2012 Denise de Ridder and colleagues analysed over a hundred studies that used the self-control scale. High scores were linked more strongly to automatic behaviour, habits, than to deliberate acts of resisting. Later studies found that people high in self-control reported fewer temptations in daily life, not more successful fights with them.

So the high scorer from the opening example is the one without chocolate in the drawer. Their self-control works mostly before the moment of temptation.

What to do with a low score

A low score describes how often impulses win at the moment. The research suggests a few practical changes that do not depend on more effort in the moment:

1. Change the setting. Put the phone in another room while you work, and do not buy what you are trying to avoid.
2. Turn the good choice into a habit. A fixed time and place for exercise needs less decision-making each day.
3. Plan for the hard moment. "If I feel like scrolling after dinner, I will go for a ten-minute walk" works better than a general intention.

If a low score comes with trouble finishing tasks, the procrastination test and the post on why we procrastinate and how to stop may help. If acting on impulse is the main issue, try the impulsivity test. And if strong emotions make self-control hard, read four emotion regulation strategies.