EXERCISING WILLPOWER: DIFFERENCES IN WILLPOWER DEPLETION AMONG ATHLETES AND NONATHLETES

Adam Hoffer and Lisa Giddings

Contemporary Economic Policy, 2016, vol. 34, issue 3, 463-474

Abstract: type="main" xml:id="coep12150-abs-0001"> This study presents the results from a controlled experiment designed to test for differences in willpower depletion between athletes and nonathletes. Individuals with more willpower are more likely to have high school and college degrees, higher earnings, better jobs, lower crime and poverty rates, and are less likely to be obese. Recent research has established that reserves of willpower get depleted, leaving individuals unable to carry out tasks that require further self-control. The experimental results show that after administering a willpower-draining task, athletes persisted for significantly longer—exhibited less willpower depletion—on an unsolvable puzzle than nonathletes. (JEL C91, J24)

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/coep.2016.34.issue-3 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:34:y:2016:i:3:p:463-474

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://ordering.onl ... 5-7287&ref=1465-7287

Access Statistics for this article

Contemporary Economic Policy is currently edited by Brad R. Humphreys

More articles in Contemporary Economic Policy from Western Economic Association International Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().