Willpower

a special debt to Tim Jeal, the masterly biographer, who generously provided information about Henry Morton Stanley and reviewed our chapter for historical accuracy. Aaron Patzer, Martha Shaughnessy, and the rest of the team at Mint .com—including Chris Lesner, Jacques Belissent, T. J. Sanghvi, David Michaels, and Todd Manzer—kindly provided us with a painstaking analysis of more than two billion financial transactions.
    Baumeister’s work was facilitated by a sabbatical leave from Florida State University, by the host university for his sabbatical (the University of California, Santa Barbara), and especially by the opportunities associated with his Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar professorial position at FSU. Some of his time was supported by the grant “Self-Control and Stress,” 1RL1AA017541, from the National Institutes of Health. He also acknowledges that many previously published works that are covered here were supported by his earlier research grant, “Ego Depletion Patterns and Self-Control Failure,” MH-57039, also from the National Institutes of Health.
    Tierney’s research was aided by the endlessly resourceful Nicole Vincent-Roller, a graduate student in Columbia University’s creative writing program, who worked with him as part of the school’s MFA research internships program. Thanks to her and to the program’s director, Patricia O’Toole.
    Finally, we want to thank our families—especially Dianne and Athena, Dana and Luke—for putting up with our own moments of depleted willpower during the writing of this book. Their strength has been a continuing inspiration.

Notes

INTRODUCTION
    1 Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man (New York: American Home Library, 1902), 166.
    2 international survey on character strengths: Values in Action project (see C. Peterson and M. Seligman, eds., Character Strengths and Virtues [Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2004]); the statistics on frequency of listing were done by Neal Mayerson specifically for this project.
    3 German beeper study: W. Hoffman, K. Vohs, G. Förster, and R. Baumeister (completed in 2010 and to be submitted for scientific publication in 2011). Hoffman is now at the University of Chicago.
    4 Victorians and morality: For particular coverage of the Victorian concerns about morality and religion, see W. E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830–1870 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957). Also relevant: P. Gay, Bourgeois Experience: Education of the Senses (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984).
    5 Self-Help: Samuel Smiles, Self-Help; with illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance (London: John Murray, 1866), 104.
    5 The Power of Will: Frank Channing Haddock, Power of Will (Meriden, CT: Pelton, 1916), 7.
    6 new self-help bestsellers: See C. B. Whelan, “Self-Help Books and the Quest for Self-Control in the United States, 1950–2000” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oxford, 2004), http://christinewhelan.com/wp-content/uploads/Self-Help_Long_Abstract.pdf ; and P. Carlson, “Let a Thousand Gurus Bloom,” Washington Post Magazine, February 12, 1995, W12.
    6 Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People (New York: Gallery Books, 1998), 63-70.
    7 “realizable wish”: Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 46.
    7 “believe yourself already in possession of the money”: N. Hill, Think and Grow Rich (Radford, VA: Wilder Publications, 2008), 27.
    7 Allen Wheelis: The Quest for Identity (New York: Norton, 1958).
    8 B. F. Skinner: Beyond Freedom & Dignity (New York: Knopf, 1971).
    9 U.S. math students: J. Mathews, “For Math Students, Self-Esteem Might Not Equal High Scores,” Washington Post, October 18, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701298.html .
    10 Mischel’s studies of delayed gratification: A good recent summary of Mischel’s studies, including the famous “marshmallow test,” is W. Mischel and O. Ayduk, “Willpower in a Cognitive-Affective Processing System: The Dynamics of Delay of Gratification,” in R. Baumeister and K. Vohs, eds., Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications (New York: Guilford, 2004), 99–129. An earlier summary, probably more extensive and closer to the original work, was W. Mischel, “Processes in Delay of Gratification,” in L. Berkowitz, ed., Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1974),