According to a new research, just a spoonful of sugar can make your willpower go up.
Studies have suggested that fuelling the brain with sweets can strengthen self-control. The new study by Australian researchers found that you don't even need to swallow to get the benefits of sweetness.
Simply swishing a glucose-laden drink in the mouth and spitting it out boosted self-control and willpower for tasks from squeezing a handgrip to completing impossible brain teasers, the LiveScience reported.
"This suggests that it is the perception of glucose rather than its metabolism in the body that is likely to be useful in counteracting the deleterious effects of reduced self-control," said study researcher Martin Hagger, a psychologist at Curtin University in Western Australia.
Researchers also found that a quick hit of glucose, or sugar, can bolster flagging willpower. The idea is that exerting self-control drains the brain of glucose, its main fuel, and so a gulp of sugary beverage can set the brain right again.
Hagger and his colleagues wanted to find out whether it's glucose metabolism, or simply the taste of sugar, that revs up self-control.
They conducted a series of five experiments in which participants completed willpower-depleting tasks, such as reading something boring or completing impossible word scramble puzzles.
In one experiment, participants had to exert their willpower in a feat of physical strength, squeezing a handgrip. In another, they were asked to avoid the temptation of a plate of cookies and eat some radishes instead.
In yet another, they were asked to drink as much as they could stand of a gross but supposedly healthy drink ( a mixture of orange juice and vinegar).
After having their self-control tested with one task, the participants were given either a glucose drink or a drink containing no sugar but sweetened artificially.
They were told to swish the beverage in their mouths but not swallow it. Finally, the researchers assigned a second tedious task to the participants, measuring how well they bucked up to meet the challenge.
In all cases, the participants who got the real-sugar mouthwash performed better than those who rinsed with the artificially sweetened drink.
The study was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
