The original claim has been refuted; proponents have moved to different ground.

What's still open

What the evidence found 3 findings
Based on 14 sources:
PMC (PubMed Central) peer-reviewed View
Replication Index blog View
Science News news View
PubMed peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
Association for Psychological Science institutional View
PMC - NIH peer-reviewed View
Ohio University Electronic Theses and Dissertations institutional View
HAL Archives Ouvertes institutional View
PubMed peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Frontiers in Psychology peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Based on 13 sources:
PMC peer-reviewed View
American Psychological Association institutional View
Sage Journals peer-reviewed View
PLoS ONE peer-reviewed View
PubMed peer-reviewed View
Science Direct peer-reviewed View
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology peer-reviewed View
Cultural differences in human brain activity: A quantitative meta-analysis peer-reviewed View
Brain Structure in Young and Old East Asians and Westerners peer-reviewed View
excellence in being and doing and everyday happiness peer-reviewed View
PMC article on Levels of Emotional Awareness peer-reviewed View
Neuroscience of sadness multidisciplinary synthesis peer-reviewed View
PMC article on identity-value model peer-reviewed View
Based on 14 sources:
PMC - NIH peer-reviewed View
Current Biology peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate institutional View
PMC peer-reviewed View
NeuroImage peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
PMC - Mental Work Requires Physical Energy: Self-Control Is Neither... peer-reviewed View
PMC - Does the Brain Consume Additional Glucose during Self-Control peer-reviewed View
PMC - Fueling and imaging brain activation peer-reviewed View
PubMed peer-reviewed View
MDPI Life peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Mayo Clinic and Karolinska Institutet institutional View
PMC peer-reviewed View
What research hasn't answered 3 gaps
PMC peer-reviewed View
American Psychological Association institutional View
Sage Journals peer-reviewed View
PLoS ONE peer-reviewed View
PubMed peer-reviewed View
Sources 21 findings
2016 argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
2010 Hagger argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
2016 tree-leaf argumentation
2010 Hagger argumentation
2010 Job argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
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Related questions
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Generated by reaso.ai's editorial pipeline: claim restated, scientific consensus classified via 3-run majority vote, 21 findings enriched with attribution and study type, narrative written in neutral voice. No individual researcher has signed off on this specific analysis — see methodology for how the pipeline works. Built with Claude Sonnet by Anthropic. Updated April 16, 2026. How we do this →

Written by AI. Sources are linked for verification.