Isn’t there a lot of controversy about the “science” of willpower?

There certainly is. Two current areas of controversy that affect advice our Willpwr+  apps provide are as follows:

1. In 2007, M.T. Gaillot, Ray Baumeister, and colleagues (1) suggested that tasks that required willpower utilized glucose as an energy source, and that willpower ability decreased when glucose levels fell. The finding supported Baumeister’s many earlier studies that pointed to willpower as a “limited resource” that fatigues like a muscle with intense use and benefits from replenishment through glucose. The glucose-willpower connection is being challenged by other investigators. One such investigation found that just the taste of glucose could reinstate fatigued willpower. Other studies have shown that particular beliefs or instructional sets can also influence the willpower depletion observation. Our app includes the advice that a snack and/or rest can help reinstate willpower abilities because literally hundreds of studies have shown that to be true. The mechanism for that effect, namely glucose depletion, and replenishment might be wrong, but the practical advice is not in question.
2. Another set of studies argue that willpower is not sufficient to overcome negative habits. For example, Traci Mann, PhD (2) and colleagues argue strongly that using willpower alone is particularly ineffective in weight control. Here the argument revolves around how willpower is defined. If the definition is limited to a person’s ability to “tough it out” in the presence of a craving, then by all means, “toughing it out” is not enough. If the definition is expanded to mean a broad variety of strategies including behavioral, situational, emotional and cognitive approaches (Dr. Mann calls them “smart regulators”) then we are in complete agreement and in fact, have used all kinds of smart regulators throughout our app to offer assistance. We define willpower in the broadest sense, including all kinds of strategies.

The takeaway from these controversies is that science is a marvelous process of discovery, interpretation, and refinement of ideas. The incredibly important psychological phenomena associated with self-control is no different. We don’t think these current controversies challenge the advice our apps give. We believe we’ve tapped into findings that will be helpful to users of our apps and we have no doubt that future findings will add to, modify, and expand our understanding of why these strategies can be effective. 

1. Gailliot MT1, Baumeister RF, DeWall CN, Maner JK, Plant EA, Tice DM, Brewer LE, Schmeichel BJ.“Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: willpower is more than a metaphor.J Pers Soc Psychol. 2007 Feb;92(2):325-36.
2. Mann, Traci, Secrets From the Eating Lab:The Science of Weight Loss,The Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again, Harper, Collins, 2015