If your whole plan is to keep your mouth shut next time, ask yourself how. Most of us go blank at that question, and the blank is worth more attention than another promise to try harder.

What the research says

Across four experiments, being provoked left people with less capacity for self control on a later task, and dwelling on the provocation was one route from being wound up to acting on it. An often cited review argued that acts of self control draw down a limited energy supply, though that energy model has since been seriously contested. Taken together they suggest restraint alone is a shaky thing to lean on, which is a weaker claim than any single account of why.

Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.