Abstract
Few models of self-control have generated as much scientific interest as has the limited strength model. One of the entailments of this model, the depletion effect, is the expectation that acts of self-control will be less effective when they follow prior acts of self-control. Results from a previous meta-analysis concluded that the depletion effect is robust and medium in magnitude (d = 0.62). However, when we applied methods for estimating and correcting for small-study effects (such as publication bias) to the data from this previous meta-analysis effort, we found very strong signals of publication bias, along with an indication that the depletion effect is actually no different from zero. We conclude that until greater certainty about the size of the depletion effect can be established, circumspection about the existence of this phenomenon is warranted, and that rather than elaborating on the model, research efforts should focus on establishing whether the basic effect exists. We argue that the evidence for the depletion effect is a useful case study for illustrating the dangers of small-study effects as well as some of the possible tools for mitigating their influence in psychological science.
Highlights
For more than a decade, the proposition that self-control relies on a limited resource has been a mainstay of theorizing on self-control that has influenced researchers across psychology sub-disciplines, including social-personality (Inzlicht et al, 2006), clinical (Christiansen et al, 2012), health (Hagger, 2010), cognitive (Pohl et al, 2013), and consumer psychology (Baumeister et al, 2008)
If self-control relies on a limited resource, participants in the depletion condition should perform worse on the second task than do those in the control condition
Our findings suggest that the published literature on the depletion effect is clearly influenced by small-study effects, and as a result, overestimates the strength of the phenomenon
Summary
For more than a decade, the proposition that self-control relies on a limited resource has been a mainstay of theorizing on self-control that has influenced researchers across psychology sub-disciplines, including social-personality (Inzlicht et al, 2006), clinical (Christiansen et al, 2012), health (Hagger, 2010), cognitive (Pohl et al, 2013), and consumer psychology (Baumeister et al, 2008). The methods Muraven et al (1998) and Baumeister et al (1998) developed to test the limited strength model are straightforward: first, participants complete either a version of a task that is designed to be self-control-intensive (the “depletion” condition) or a version designed to require relatively little self-control (the control condition). Participants complete a different task— designed to require self-control We refer to this experimental method as the sequential task paradigm. If self-control relies on a limited resource, participants in the depletion condition should perform worse on the second task than do those in the control condition. We refer to this pattern of results as the depletion effect
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