So after I read Baumeister & Tierney’s book, I began wondering whether one could run a little self-experiment to test it. The obvious approach: randomize consumption of some peanut butter crackers (low glycemic index). But then I saw the criticisms of it and failed replications, and I became less enthusiastic: I’m already primed for depletability, so non-blind consumption is predicted by the skeptics to show an effect. So blinding seems necessary.
How do I blind it? I have a few hundred 00 capsules left, but I would blow through them fast filling them up with peanut butter.
The study I heard about in another pop-sci book mentioned subjects drinking lemonade which either had added glucose or splenda. Fill two glasses, then shuffle them around and grab one blindly in the dark?
Baumeister & Tierney do discuss how to use the sugar theory practically, and they discourage people from swilling sugar rather than snacking on healthier low-glycemic index stuff (such as nuts). On the other hand, now that I think about it, they weren’t talking about self-experimentation so much as long-term habits, so maybe that’s not a bad suggestion after all...
So after I read Baumeister & Tierney’s book, I began wondering whether one could run a little self-experiment to test it. The obvious approach: randomize consumption of some peanut butter crackers (low glycemic index). But then I saw the criticisms of it and failed replications, and I became less enthusiastic: I’m already primed for depletability, so non-blind consumption is predicted by the skeptics to show an effect. So blinding seems necessary.
How do I blind it? I have a few hundred 00 capsules left, but I would blow through them fast filling them up with peanut butter.
The study I heard about in another pop-sci book mentioned subjects drinking lemonade which either had added glucose or splenda. Fill two glasses, then shuffle them around and grab one blindly in the dark?
Baumeister & Tierney do discuss how to use the sugar theory practically, and they discourage people from swilling sugar rather than snacking on healthier low-glycemic index stuff (such as nuts). On the other hand, now that I think about it, they weren’t talking about self-experimentation so much as long-term habits, so maybe that’s not a bad suggestion after all...