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Stephen F. Austin State University

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Metabolism

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Improved Self-Control Associated With Using Relatively Large Amounts Of Glucose: Learning Self-Control Is Metabolically Expensive, Matthew T. Gailliot Jan 2012

Improved Self-Control Associated With Using Relatively Large Amounts Of Glucose: Learning Self-Control Is Metabolically Expensive, Matthew T. Gailliot

Faculty Publications

The current study examined whether changes in glucose during a self-control task would predict changes in self-control performance later on. Participants attended two experimental sessions, spaced two weeks apart. During each session, they had their glucose measured, completed the Stroop task as a measure of self-control, and then had their glucose measured again. Larger decreases in glucose (from before to after the Stroop task) during the first session predicted larger increases in improvement on the Stroop task during the second session, in the form of increased speed. Learning self-control might benefit from using larger amounts of glucose. Learning self-control is …


Mortality Salience And Metabolism: Glucose Drinks Reduce Worldview Defense Caused By Mortality Salience, Matthew T. Gailliot Jan 2012

Mortality Salience And Metabolism: Glucose Drinks Reduce Worldview Defense Caused By Mortality Salience, Matthew T. Gailliot

Faculty Publications

The current work tested the hypothesis that a glucose drink would reduce worldview defense following mortality salience. Participants consumed either a glucose drink or placebo, wrote about either death or dental pain, and then completed a measure of worldview defense (viewing positively someone with pro-US views and viewing negatively someone with anti-US views). Mortality salience increased world- view defense among participants who consumed a placebo but not among participants who consumed a glucose drink. Glucose might reduce defensiveness after mortality salience by increasing the effectiveness of the self-controlled suppression of death-related thought, by providing resources to cope with mortality salience …