The Brain Can Only Take So Much Focus
The science behind "ego depletion" is at very least controversial, namely because the effect has not been reproduced in subsequent experiments.<p>* Wikipedia provides a good summary of replication attempts: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion#Reproducibility_controversy_and_conflicting_meta_analyses" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion#Reproducibility_...</a><p>* Slate covered the topic here: <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/03/ego_depletion_an_influential_theory_in_psychology_may_have_just_been_debunked.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story...</a><p>* And here is a recent, large replication study: <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691616652873" rel="nofollow">http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/174569161665287...</a><p>As a result, I would hesitate before using "ego depletion" as an excuse for rationalizing a lack of self-control (eg. giving into "cheat foods" or being irritable/impulsive). Whether or not "ego depletion" is real, science has not yet adequately validated the theory.<p>Moreover, there is a risk to accepting the theory as true: because one believes in "ego depletion," one can rationalize a lower degree of self-control, which may have been higher otherwise. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.<p>I think it is fair to assume that, given the current research, "ego depletion" is no more than a reasonable hypothesis. It is possible that willpower may not fit the "finite resource" model at all.