Psych at Work

I only noticed this little irony because I'm such a huge college football fan (okay, all football really) and I'm getting incredibly excited about the start of the football season... but I saw a commercial for some of Gatorade's new products - the one I've embedded here actually and I got to thinking... One of the new products for Gatorade (it's Gator-ade, as in drink to 'aid' the Florida Gator athletes), including one that appeared to be some kind of a gel, which I believe is glucose.

That got me thinking about the research that played a role in developing that product and how I believe that some of that research is from our own world of psychology! I believe that Gatorade's gel-like product has to have been at least partially influenced (there's an obvious connection at worst) by some of Roy Baumeister and his colleagues at Florida State (you know, the big rival for the University of Florida). What stands out to me in particular is a study that made an impression on me if for no other reason than because I cannot believe the number of participants, IRB forms and restrictions, and sheer man power taken to conduct it.

Gailliot, along with Baumeister and several other co-authors, published a paper in 2007 demonstrating the connection between glucose and self-regulation, self-control... the subtitle was even "Willpower is more than a metaphor." While Gatorade isn't exactly used to improve performance on a Stroop test, I would think its creators and researchers were at least aware of the Baumeister & Tice lab because those who had the best performance (and most self-control, self-regulation) had ingested a glucose drink!

I could easily be reaching with this, but it's a funny coincidence at least... any time you name a product for the school's mascot, I think you probably prompt some comparison to and anger at your rival... plus, I tend to find weird little connections to psychology from Gatorade, such as when they had their "what is g" commercials series and all I could think about was general intelligence... thoughts? Think there is a connection?

(If you're interested, this is the citation: Gailliot, M. T., Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Maner, J. K., Plant, E. A., Tice, D. M., Brewer, L. E., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 325-336.)