Self-Control Depletion Effect May Not Exist Despite Widespread Acceptance in Psychology

What was said

"One multi-lab experiment did not show that it worked, and another one showed it did. The one that showed it didn't work was led by people who conducted this research in the first place. So it was seen as very damning, like if they can't get this experiment to work, then it doesn't exist."

Fujita disclosed that the widely-accepted concept of willpower depletion—where using self-control exhausts a limited resource—has failed to replicate in multiple large-scale studies. Even the original researchers who discovered the effect could not reproduce it in multi-lab experiments, suggesting the phenomenon may not exist as previously understood, despite being a cornerstone of self-control psychology for two decades.