The Collapse of Ego Depletion

Science's Biggest Self-Control Failure

In the winter of 2015, I stood before the largest gathering of social psychologists in the world to accept one of the field’s highest honours. My collaborators and I were being celebrated for our theory about willpower—a theory I’d spent many years refining. For a kid who grew up with empty bookshelves, this should have been a moment of triumph [1].

Ins…