A possible mechanism by which glucose increases ability for selfcontrol
is through activating brain regions that support selfcontrol
operations. However, glucose is only likely to improve
self-control performance if people exert effort on a moment-tomoment
basis, during self-control tasks. If individuals are unwilling
to exercise self-control consistently when performing the task, then
insufficient motivation may mask glucose effects – thus creating to
experimenters the “illusion” that glucose does not influence selfcontrol
performance. Glucose may, therefore, increase an individuals’
capacity to exercise self-control but this ‘glucose advantage’ may
not be manifested in the results of empirical studies if depleted participants,
who ingest or rinse their mouths with glucose, do not use
this advantage because they are unwilling to exercise self-control.