> It is not
No, it is. I think you missed my point though.
> because in that instance we have incontrovertible evidence of the truth.
This is irrelevant to my point. You said that I was wrong to say the issue we were discussing is not debatable because it is still being debated. I pointed out that's a fallacious argument because you can claim anything is debatable then as long as at least two peoples are debating it. That's kind of self-evident and clearly I wasn't trying to claim as otherwise, as explained preciously. As such, intentional or not, I see that as a kind of strawman.
> In psychology we’re working on much shakier ground and it’s widely understood there’s little we know for sure. The field is rife with reproducibility issues.
Absolutely, it's why it's a soft science. But we're still able to overcome that difficult and come up with useful data and testable models, and we've done that with willpower. Of course we don't completely understand it, but it's beyond a doubt that at least some people can increase it.
Here's an excerpt from an interview with Kelly McGonigal[1]
The research also shows that willpower decreases over the course of the day, as your energy gets "spent" on stress and self-control. This has become known as "the muscle model" of willpower. Like your biceps or quadriceps the willpower "muscle" can get exhausted from effort.
But that doesn't mean we're all doomed to run out of willpower by noon. I prefer to talk about becoming a willpower athlete. Any muscle in your body can be made stronger through exercise. If willpower is a muscle, even a metaphorical muscle, it should be possible to train it. That's what the research shows.
> The link I initially shared touches on that point. The evidence we have was observed only on people who believed willpower works like that. Thus it’s not a universal truth.
The article talks about ego depletion working like that, which is not the same thing as what I've been saying. It's an entirely separate issue.
I'm saying willpower functions as a muscle and can be increased. Like anyone can strengthen a bicep. I'm not saying we start with a limited pool of willpower that we use up, which is what ego depletion is. That's entirely unrelated to the claim I made.
However, as far as research on being able to increase willpower goes:
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855143/
> Participants who practiced self-control by cutting back on sweets or squeezing a handgrip exhibited significant improvement in stop signal performance relative to those who practiced tasks that did not require self-control.
> ...
> Supplemental analyses suggested that only practicing self-control built self-control capacity; the improved outcomes cannot be explained by self-fulfilling prophecies, increased self-efficacy or awareness of self-control.
[3] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/174569161769707...
> A prominent idea suggests that training self-control by repeatedly overriding dominant responses should lead to broad improvements in self-control over time. Here, we conducted a random-effects meta-analysis based on robust variance estimation of the published and unpublished literature on self-control training effects. Results based on 33 studies and 158 effect sizes revealed a small-to-medium effect of g = 0.30
> ...
> The mechanisms underlying the effect are poorly understood.
[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26708331/
> this study aimed to explore whether a metacognitive therapy technique, Attention Training (ATT: Wells, 1990) can improve young children's ability to delay gratification. One hundred children participated. Classes of 5-6 year olds were randomly allocated to either the ATT or a no-intervention condition and were tested pre and post-intervention on ability to delay gratification, verbal inhibition (executive control), and measures of mood. The ATT intervention significantly increased (2.64 times) delay of gratification compared to the no-intervention condition. After controlling for age and months in school, the ATT intervention and verbal inhibition task performance were significant independent predictors of delay of gratification. These results provide evidence that ATT can improve children's self-regulatory abilities
That last link is a very famous study in the field and has yet to be invalidated multiple decades since it's publication. And there is no shortage of studies corroborating this same type of result. It's very much established.
And so, I'm going to reiterate and double down on my point here, that there is indeed a consensus view and ample evidence showing that a subset of people can increase their willpower via specialized exercises and use. That we know this isn't debatable in the sense we satisfied this to be true and should instead move past to discussing consequences, but it is debatable in the sense anyone can choose to debate it if they wish, as with the flat earth hypothesis.
[1] https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2011/12/29/a-conversation-abo...
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855143/
[3] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/174569161769707...
[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26708331/