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Achieving the same for less: improving mood depletes blood glucose for people with poor (but not good) emotion control

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 15:22 authored by Karen Niven, Peter Totterdell, Eleanor MilesEleanor Miles, Thomas L Webb, Paschal Sheeran
Previous studies have found that acts of self-control like emotion regulation deplete blood glucose levels. The present experiment investigated the hypothesis that the extent to which people's blood glucose levels decline during emotion regulation attempts is influenced by whether they believe themselves to be good or poor at emotion control. We found that although good and poor emotion regulators were equally able to achieve positive and negative moods, the blood glucose of poor emotion regulators was reduced after performing an affect-improving task, whereas the blood glucose of good emotion regulators remained unchanged. As evidence suggests that glucose is a limited energy resource upon which self-control relies, the implication is that good emotion regulators are able to achieve the same positive mood with less cost to their self-regulatory resource. Thus, depletion may not be an inevitable consequence of engaging in emotion regulation.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Cognition & Emotion

ISSN

0269-9931

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

1

Volume

27

Page range

133-140

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-07-10

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2013-07-10

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