Maintaining Self-Control in Chaos: The Protective Role of Sense of Power

As a crucial mechanism for regulating human behavior, self-control is influenced by both internal individual factors and external environmental factors. Existing research has established that disordered environments can impair an individual’s self-control, but exploration of moderating factors remains insufficient. This paper proposes that the sense of power is a significant moderating factor in the relationship between disordered environments and self-control. Through experiments employing an intertemporal choice task, a breath-holding task, and a Stroop task, this study verified both the impairing effect of disordered environments on self-control and the moderating role of the sense of power. The results demonstrate that disordered environments harm the willingness to exert self-control, behavioral performance, and inhibitory control. The self-control of individuals with a high trait sense of power was not negatively affected by disordered environments. Furthermore, elevating the state sense of power can protect self-control from the detrimental effects of disordered environments. These findings provide a new perspective for understanding the boundary conditions of, and interventions for, the impairing effect of disordered environments on self-control.