Self-control is a central human capacity associated with a wide range of personal and societal advantages. In view of its benefits, increasing self-control has been advocated as a remedy to many of society’s illnesses. This approach is evident in the popular media, as well as in educating and governing agencies, and has subsequently taken root in the general public. The present talk advocates a broader approach by noting some of the downsides of the pursuit of higher self-control. The talk will present two lines of research that uncover some potentially unfavorable implications of self-control. The first line focuses on a desire for more self-control. Although most people aspire to have more self-control than they currently possess, we demonstrate in several experiments that having such a desire could backfire, especially in demanding settings (Uziel & Baumeister, 2017). The second line focuses on the implications of having self-control on prosocial (vs. selfish) behavior. Although self-control often enhances prosocial behavioral tendencies, our research shows that under certain conditions more self-control leads to greater selfishness (Uziel & Hefetz, 2014). Jointly, these works sketch boundary conditions to the benefits of self-control, encouraging a more nuanced approach to this basic characteristic (cf. Uziel, in press).