Punctuality and . . . socks!

Quick question: Would you expect students who are punctual in handing in assignments to be wearing clean socks or not? Your answer is “Yes,” right? Back in the 1970s the psychologist Daryl Bem set himself the task of finding out. He hypothesized that students who kept deadlines were conscientious, ergo this trait of theirs should also affect the way they dressed and such things as cleanliness and tidiness. You can imagine how shocked he was when the results from the students of Stanford University, where he was working, showed in fact the exact opposite (Baumeister & Tierney, 2012). But then Bem was not familiar with the amazing notion of ego depletion and experiments like the following one.

Of Cookies and Radishes

Scientists invited two groups of students to the lab on the pretext that they would be involved in an experiment on “taste perception.” Each group were led into a room which contained a bowl of freshly baked cookies and a bowl or radishes. The former group was instructed to eat two to three cookies but no radishes (hardly a challenge!), whereas the other was instructed to eat only radishes. To maximize the temptation for the latter group, the researchers actually left the room (but nobody actually cheated).

But the interesting part of the experiment came immediately afterward. Both groups were given a series of tasks to complete; the tasks involved the students tracing the outline of some complex geometrical shapes, and they were deliberately designed to be unsolvable. What the scientists wanted to see was this: Would there be a difference in how quickly the students gave up? Incredibly, there was! The cookie-eaters persisted on average for 19 minutes and made about 34 attempts; the others, however, gave up after only 8 minutes and 19 attempts. Before you make a mental note never to eat radishes again, let me say that the results had nothing to do with the plant’s nutritional qualities; the students had simply run out of self-control (Heath & Heath 2011).

By now you will have guessed why students could submit assignments on time or wear clean socks (but found it hard to do both); the willpower they expended in trying to finish their work on time depleted them, so they did not have the mental energy to even think about changing clothes. In fact, the experiment described above is simply one of many, but the key findings of this research can be summarized as follows (Baumeister & Tierney 2012):

• Our reserves of willpower are finite and exhaustible.
• There are no different pools of willpower; there is only one.
• Exercising willpower in one field means it is harder for one to do the same in another, even if the latter is a totally unrelated one.
• Routines (sequences of actions we are used to) do not deplete our willpower.
• Willpower is like a muscle—it can be strengthened.

Baumeister (2012) dubbed this phenomenon of willpower exhaustion ego depletion.

Applications in the Field of ELT

The more one thinks about these principles, the greater the implications for ELT and education in general. Here are some of them:

One step at a time: Whenever you are asking students to do something novel, they should do it piecemeal. Trying to do many things at the same time simply wears people out. Focusing on one thing means that we stand a better chance of succeeding; this success will then provide a boost for the next step (Hayes, 1993). For instance, in writing an essay, a teacher could help the learners first in coming up with ideas, then with making a plan, then drafting the topic sentences, and so on.

Change: As Dan Heath says, change means stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and it can therefore be very depleting. So, for instance, if you are a DOS and you want to get your teachers to adopt IWB technology in the classroom, it makes sense to do it at the beginning of the year—not during the exam period! It would also help if any change was not wholesale but again a gradual transition. Rather than expecting teachers to use, say, the full web 2.0 suite of tools that Russel Stannard uses, it is more logical to wait until they are comfortable with, for instance, Jing before getting them to start using Today’s Meet or Eyejot.

Choice fatigue: One of the most surprising findings of this research is that simply making choices can exhaust one’s will power (cf Schwartz, 2005). The moral here is simple: Although it empowers students to have choices, this might also mean that they have less mental energy to pursue their goals. Even simply choosing when to write or submit an assignment can seriously impact on the end result (Ariely, 2008). The same holds true in times of change; if people are struggling to, say, take on board new techniques or new technologies, a DOS can make things easier by limiting their choices in other respects.

Routines: Amazingly, although performing routines can involve mental and perhaps even physical effort, they do not exhaust your supply of will-power—because they are automatic! In fact, research has shown that strong-willed people do not often make use of it; they have it in reserve, precisely because they have already have well-established routines (Baumeister & Tierney, 2012). The moral here is this: If you want students to, for instance, acquire good learning strategies (cf Oxford, 1990), introduce one at a time, wait until it has become a part of the students’ repertoire, and only then introduce another.

A liberal education? Look at the last point. “Willpower is like a muscle; it can be strengthened.” Baumeister remarks that in the past developing the willpower of the young was much prized. In the 20th century, however, with a shift toward building self-esteem this waned. His point that there is a danger of us throwing away the (self-control building) baby with the (authoritarian) bathwater is something that we should bear in mind. Personally, having extensive experience of the rigid, constraining, and clearly outdated educational system in Greece, I would love to see a radical shift toward greater liberalism. Having said that, Baumeister’s point still stands: We are failing students if we do not help them build up this extra muscle.

Away from ELT

Naturally, it goes without saying that this discovery can be applied to just about any aspect of our lives. It is not a good idea to go on a diet while you are moving house; if you embark on a long-distance master’s course after you have just had a baby, the odds are that it is going to be a long, hard slog. If you are weight-conscious, it might be a good idea to remove all ice cream, cakes, and cookies from the fridge; chances are upon returning home from work, you will find it hard to resist temptation. Oh, and whatever you do, do not try to get your spouse to give up smoking just before that 7-day business trip!

References

Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably irrational. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Baumeister, R. (2012). Willpower: Self-control, decision fatigue and energy depletion. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfnUicHDNM8

Baumeister, R., & Tierney, J. (2012). Willpower. New York, NY: Penguin.

Hayes, N. (1993). Principles of social psychology. London, England: Psychology Press.

Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2011). Switch. New York, NY: Random House.

Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. New York, NY: Newbury House..

Schwartz, B. (2005). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Nick Michelioudakis has worked for years as a teacher, examiner, and trainer. His love of comedy led him to start the Comedy for ELT project on YouTube. His articles on methodology and psychology have appeared in many countries. To see some of them, you can visit his website at www.michelioudakis.org.