Author Archives: polariskoi

It’s become widely accepted that agential capacities like self-control are situationally and structurally shaped. But what does that entail in practice, what is the soundest way to make sense of the role of the environment in agency, and how should agency be supported?

These and other questions were at the forefront in the Agential Capacities in Context workshop that our research group organized at the University of Turku.

It was a huge privilege to invite this diverse and creative group of scholars across disciplines to sunny Turku. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who was part of this event, whether helping organize it, attending in person or online, or giving a talk. Special tip of the hat to Anssi Bwalya, who took on a triple role, giving a talk, chairing sessions, and taking care of most of the admin for the event!

On the day prior, we also had a pre-workshop on ‘Mind in the Age of AI’, organized by Jussi Jylkkä. At this intimate work-in-progress event, scholars exploring the intersection of cognition and AI exchanged early feedback on their work.

Stay tuned for 2027: the next workshop will take place then!

Polaris just appeared in ‘Sorry, I Missed This’, a podcast hosted by Cate Osborn, better known as Catieosaurus. The podcast is part of a suite of resources for ADHDers by Understood, a leading nonprofit for people with cognitive differences.

In the episode, Cate and Polaris discuss whether and how ADHD impacts our self-control, whether self-control is always a good thing, the negative impact of popular narratives on self-control on ADHDers, and shifting away from ‘willpower’ to thinking in terms of barriers to self-control.

Check out the episode here!

Yesterday, June 3, the Climate Nudge project (2020-2026) published its final report and policy brief. The multidisciplinary project, funded by The Academy of Finland Strategic Research Council, studied the role of behavioural insights in climate policy, with a particular focus on the transport and land use sectors.

The final report (in Finnish) concludes that while nudges are widely acceptable in Finland, their impact is limited and highly context-dependent. Behavioural interventions function best when choice barriers are low and when they are explicitly designed to complement existing regulations and economic incentives.

Because nudges cannot generate massive emission reductions on their own, it’s essential to advance structural societal changes. Instead of applying them on their own, behavioural insights should be integrated directly into the initial planning, execution, and long-term assessment of climate policies.

A complementing policy brief (in Finnish) distils the project’s main policy recommendations on how to identify when nudges are – and aren’t – applicable, and urges early deployment, co-creation, and assessment of long-term effects.

Fresh off the press, this article in is part of the New Ideas in Psychology special issue “Control and Commitment: Philosophical, Psychological, and Neuroscientific Perspectives“.

Part of our Agency as Experience and Capacity research project, the paper examines the role of non-voluntary attention in self-control.

Attention and self-control: self-regulation from the bottom up
Author: Polaris Koi

Abstract
According to a widespread view, self-control is a top-down cognitive process that downregulates bottom-up processes, where those bottom-up processes, unless downregulated, are detrimental to self-control. In this paper, I argue that thinking of self-control solely in terms of top-down cognitive control is misleading. Instead, self-control has a necessary bottom-up component in conflict detection, realized by the interplay of the ventral attention circuit and the anterior cingulate cortex. This mechanism generalizes across different forms of self-control. I describe a model of the roles of top-down and bottom-up processing in self-control where bottom-up conflict detection allows the emergence of top-down control. On this model, some cases of self-control failure that are standardly thought to indicate impaired top-down control may often instead reflect maladaptive conflict detection. This insight also carries clinical relevance, such as for understanding ADHD. Intriguingly, this makes self-control begin nonvolitionally. Yet, while agents cannot exert synchronic control over whether conflict detection occurs, they can attempt to facilitate it through diachronic self-regulation, such as by shaping their circumstances to better enable adaptive conflict detection.

Keywords
Attention; Conflict detection; Self-control; Cognitive control; ACC; Executive function; ADHD

A new Finnish-language edited volume, edited by Dr. Anssi Bwalya (a postdoc in the research group) and his colleagues, examines psychology’s role in a society where structural problems are increasingly addressed as matters of individual mental health.

The volume consists of contributions from experts in different subdisciplines of psychology, many of whom are early-career. It criticises diagnosis-centric support, and advocates for moving beyond individualistic framing to assessing how social structures shape mental well-being, exploring how psychology can contribute to structural change.

For more info, see here!

On August 19th, the Enhancing metacognition, agency and resilience in AI-mediated work project organizes an one-day workshop on mind in the age of AI. We invite contributions – see more information on the workshop’s website!

Starting April 20, 2026, Polaris Koi is visiting the King’s College London Policy Institute. During the 6-month visitor affiliation, he will be working with economists Sanchayan Banerjee and Philipp Thamer on integrating dimensions of agency to behavioural public policy.

Polaris will be splitting his time between Turku and London – if you’re in the greater London area, feel free to get in touch!

A new open access article just out in Philosophical Explorations!

“Value-deflationist self-control”
Polaris Koi

Abstract: On the standard conception of self-control, self-control entails the resolution of a motivational conflict in favour of the option ranked better, loftier, or otherwise more valuable, and behaving accordingly. Sometimes, however, we appear to use self-control under ambivalence, or against our better judgment. In this paper, I seek to eliminate the apparent paradox induced by these cases by defending and developing a value-deflationist conception of self-control. For the value-deflationist conception of self-control endorsed in this paper, self-control is that which is enacted to align one’s behaviour with intention in the face of a competing motivation. I develop the view further by showing that errant and ambivalent cases of self-control are not mere anomalies or theoretical curiosities but instead are important for understanding disruptions of agency due to motivational-executive double binds, where agents struggle both to rank options and to steer their behaviour. Adopting a value-deflationist account allows us to describe how ambivalence undermines self-control. Value-deflationism about self-control has faced a range of criticisms, such as the criticism that errant cases would turn out to be standard cases under a different description. The paper responds to these criticisms, showing that attempts to reconcile these cases with the standard conception fall short.

Polaris recently appeared on Dr. Rebecca Roache’s podcast, The Academic Imperfectionist.

In the episode, Polaris & Rebecca discuss Polaris’ work on self-control, neurodiversity, and how we culturally get self-control all wrong. Topics of discussion included Polaris’ journey into philosophy, his work-in-progress progress book “Against willpower: Self-control, agency, and society”, as well as about his work with Ronroo.

Check out the episode here! And, make sure to browse the podcast archives as well for Rebecca’s top-notch insights on how to work through procrastination, gain self-compassion, and get things done without grinding your teeth.

We’re excited to announce our upcoming event, Agential Capacities in Context!
We have a stellar line-up and an open call for papers for junior scholars.
Check out more information on the event’s website.