ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1593089
Everything Everywhere All At Once: Mapping Lay Beliefs about Self-Control
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Social, Health and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, Netherlands
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Self-control is essential for achieving long-term goals and is influenced by individuals’ beliefs about it. Previous studies have found that those who view self-control as nonlimited perform better in cognitive tasks, resist temptations more effectively, and achieve better outcomes. Understanding these beliefs is therefore crucial for fostering stronger self-control, yet a systematic understanding remains lacking. We analyzed 750 text responses from participants across the United States, the Netherlands, and China (total N = 150). By directly examining participants’ perspectives, we identified 14 key components of self-control beliefs. These beliefs highlight the challenging, committed, and disciplined nature of self-control, offering a broader and more nuanced perspective beyond the traditional view of self-control as a limited resource. Our findings provide a comprehensive framework for understanding lay beliefs about self-control and underscore their significance in shaping self-control exertion.
Keywords: Self-Control, willpower, Lay beliefs, trait self-control, Open questions
Received: 13 Mar 2025; Accepted: 21 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Gillebaart, van Timmeren and De Ridder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jinyao Li, Department of Social, Health and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, 3584 CS, Netherlands, Netherlands
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.