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Is “willpower” a scientific concept? Suppressing temptation contra resolution in the face of adversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Elias L. Khalil Open the ORCID record for Elias L. Khalil [Opens in a new window]
Elias L. Khalil*
Affiliation:
School of Public Administration and Development Economics, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar. [email protected]
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Abstract

The distinction that Ainslie draws among the triple-phenomena “suppression,” “resolve,” and “habit” is a great advance in decision making theory. But the conceptual machinery “willpower,” and its underpinning distinction between small/soon (SS) rewards as opposed to large/later (LL) rewards, provides a faulty framework to understand the triple-phenomena.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e43
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Creative Commons
The target article and response article are works of the U.S. Government and are not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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