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People are happier when they believe that willpower is unlimited
Author(s)
Date Issued
2015
Citation
Chow, T. S. (2015 Feb 27). People are happier when they believe that willpower is unlimited. SPSP 2015, Long Beach, CA.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Researchers have identified a number of factors that predict subjective well-being. Self-control is one of them. In general, higher self-control predicts happier life. Meanwhile, many people believe
that self-control draws on “willpower”. People hold different beliefs about willpower. Some suggest that it is a limited resource but others believe that it is unlimited. In this research we investigate this research question: can people’s lay beliefs about willpower predict their psychological well-being? We recruited 363 participants in the United States via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. A questionnaire package including measures of socio-economic background, selfcontrol capacity, implicit theory of willpower and subjective wellbeing was administered. Believing that willpower is unlimited predicts vitality, satisfaction with life and positive affect after controlling for self-control capacity and socio-economic background.
Since implicit theory is malleable as compared to many other predictors of well-being (e.g. personality), the current research suggests that it is a potential point of intervention to increase wellbeing.
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