In 1998, Roy Baumeister sat students in front of freshly baked cookies, then made some of them eat radishes instead. Faced with an unsolvable puzzle afterwards, the radish eaters gave up after about 8 minutes, less than half as long as the others. The theory of “ego depletion” was born. But in 2016, 23 labs tested it with a shared protocol and more than 2,000 participants, and found an effect close to zero.
Remembering is not replaying a recording — it is rebuilding. Each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily malleable and can be altered before being stored again. That is why two people can sincerely remember the same event… differently.
In 2003, Johnson and Goldstein compared European countries. Where you must tick a box to become a donor, consent rates ranged from 4% to 28%. Where you're a donor by default unless you opt out, they topped 85%. People aren't more generous on one side; most simply stick with whatever option was chosen for them.