Ego-depleted Participants Research Articles

Unwilling but not unable to control: Ego depletion increases effortful dishonesty with material rewards.

Previous studies have found that ego depletion increases dishonesty. However, it remains unclear whether ego depletion makes participants unable to exert self-control or unwilling to exert self-control when it increases dishonesty. The present study aimed to clarify this. Based on the process model, ego depletion causes individuals to pay more attention to material rewards and increases the motivation to act on impulse. Therefore, it is possible that ego-depleted participants are unwilling, rather than unable, to be honest. We conducted two experiments to examine this hypothesis. Results showed that ego depletion increased material-based dishonesty even when the dishonest behavior was more complicated and effortful than was the honest behavior. However, participants were reluctant to cheat just for convenience, and ego depletion had no apparent effect on convenience-based dishonesty without any material rewards. The theoretical implications and future directions of these results are discussed.

Ego-depletion increases selfish decision making, but may also increase self-conflict and regret about those decisions

ABSTRACTThe effect of ego-depletion on self-control conflict identification is the subject of ongoing debate with only limited and indirect empirical assessment. The present research used behavioral and self-report measures to test if ego-depletion affects self-control conflict identification across two studies: in an economic social dilemma game and a probe reaction task. In the social dilemma game, ego-depleted participants acted more selfishly, but also reported feeling more conflicted about their decisions and were more likely to go back and change choices they had made earlier in the game. These results replicated and extended earlier findings on ego-depletion and prosocial behavior. Study Two tested the effect of ego-depletion on self-control conflict identification using a probe recognition task designed to measure goal conflict accessibility, but found no significant effects of ego-depletion.

Can Ego-Depletion Be Helpful? Testing the Process Model Implication That Ego-Depletion Reduces Irrational Persistence

ABSTRACTThe present research investigated the effect of state self-control on irrational persistence, which refers to pursuing a course of action beyond when the effort can no longer be justified given the cost of persisting and/or probability of success. In 3 studies, ego-depletion reduced the level of irrational persistence displayed by participants. In Study 1, ego-depleted participants were less tolerant of ineffective default computer settings that wasted their time. In Study 2, ego-depleted participants solved more anagrams than nondepleted participants when given only a limited amount of time to solve anagrams that ranged from easy to difficult and skipping was allowed. Study 3 conceptually replicate the effect of Study 2 but produced a smaller effect size.

The Future and the Will: Planning requires self-control, and ego depletion leads to planning aversion

Planning is a future-directed thought process that is highly beneficial, but it requires mental effort. Informed by the strength model of self-regulation, four studies (N = 546) tested the hypothesis that willingness to plan is linked to good self-control. A correlational study (N = 201) found that people high in trait self-control had done more planning than other people and also intended to make more plans during the upcoming week. A laboratory experiment (N = 105) induced a state of ego depletion (i.e., impaired self-control) by having some participants continuously break pre-established motoric habits, and afterward these participants were less willing to make plans for the next four weeks than control participants. A field experiment (N = 112) used a naturally occurring induction of decision fatigue (IKEA shopping) and again found that ego depletion reduced planning. Specifically, fatigued shoppers exiting the store expressed more reluctance to make long-term plans than shoppers who were just arriving at the store. A final laboratory experiment (N = 128) found that ego-depleted participants were only half as likely to choose a planning task as control participants, and identified effort avoidance as a mediator mechanism. Crucially, the three experimental manipulations were longer and stronger than the 5-min depletion tasks often used in previous research (24 min; 2 h; 30 min), and manipulation checks confirmed severe and significant ego depletion. Depletion had no effects on aspirational goals or the desire to relax. We conclude that wants and desires come easily, while planning requires mental work akin to self-control. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Do they Aggress Earlier? Investigating the Effects of Ego Depletion on Police Officers\u2019 Use of Force Behavior

Endowed with the state monopoly on the legitimate use of even potentially lethal force, it is intolerable for police officers to act outside the governing legal and ethical framework. At the same time, officers are expected to exert self-control and refrain from excessive use of force when they deal with provocative and perilous situations. This study sought to investigate corresponding self-control and self-control failures through the role of ego depletion in the decision to use force by police officers. Two experiments were conducted using officers from a German State Police force, requiring the participants to use force against a provocative role player. Experiment 1 found that the ego depletion measure failed and there were no differences between the groups. Using a different ego depletion method, experiment 2 found that ego-depleted participants aggressed earlier than controls. These results indicate that circumstances that produce ego depletion could lead to the inappropriate use of force through reducing self-control. This has major implications for the police use of force and how we understand police officers’ decision-making in response to provocation.

Ego depletion in visual perception: Ego-depleted viewers experience less ambiguous figure reversal.

This study examined the effects of ego depletion on ambiguous figure perception. Adults (N = 315) received an ego depletion task and were subsequently tested on their inhibitory control abilities that were indexed by the Stroop task (Experiment 1) and their ability to perceive both interpretations of ambiguous figures that was indexed by reversal (Experiment 2). Ego depletion had a very small effect on reducing inhibitory control (Cohen's d = .15) (Experiment 1). Ego-depleted participants had a tendency to take longer to respond in Stroop trials. In Experiment 2, ego depletion had small to medium effects on the experience of reversal. Ego-depleted viewers tended to take longer to reverse ambiguous figures (duration to first reversal) when naïve of the ambiguity and experienced less reversal both when naïve and informed of the ambiguity. Together, findings suggest that ego depletion has small effects on inhibitory control and small to medium effects on bottom-up and top-down perceptual processes. The depletion of cognitive resources can reduce our visual perceptual experience.

The Impact of an Ego Depletion Manipulation on Performance-Based and Self-Report Assessment Measures.

We investigated the impact of ego depletion on selected Rorschach cognitive processing variables and self-reported affect states. Research indicates acts of effortful self-regulation transiently deplete a finite pool of cognitive resources, impairing performance on subsequent tasks requiring self-regulation. We predicted that relative to controls, ego-depleted participants' Rorschach protocols would have more spontaneous reactivity to color, less cognitive sophistication, and more frequent logical lapses in visualization, whereas self-reports would reflect greater fatigue and less attentiveness. The hypotheses were partially supported; despite a surprising absence of self-reported differences, ego-depleted participants had Rorschach protocols with lower scores on two variables indicative of sophisticated combinatory thinking, as well as higher levels of color receptivity; they also had lower scores on a composite variable computed across all hypothesized markers of complexity. In addition, self-reported achievement striving moderated the effect of the experimental manipulation on color receptivity, and in the Depletion condition it was associated with greater attentiveness to the tasks, more color reactivity, and less global synthetic processing. Results are discussed with an emphasis on the response process, methodological limitations and strengths, implications for calculating refined Rorschach scores, and the value of using multiple methods in research and experimental paradigms to validate assessment measures.

Effects of ego-depletion on choice behaviour in a multi-attribute decision task

ABSTRACTWhen a choice has to be made between two options and decision-relevant information about the options is completely available, the Take-The-Best (TTB) heuristic only considers the most important information that discriminates between the options and bases its choice on it. Choices in line with TTB thus allow a decision maker to save time and effort, and they may become more likely therefore under conditions of limited self-control strength (ego-depletion). Ego-depletion was manipulated prior to making a series of choices in a multi-attribute decision task. Choices could have been in line with either TTB or more effortful compensatory decision strategies. As predicted, compared with non-depleted participants, ego-depleted participants were more likely to make TTB-consistent choices.

Emotional, Cognitive and Self-Enhancement Processes in Aggressive Behavior After Interpersonal Rejection and Exclusion.

The relationship between exclusion or rejection and aggression is already well documented, but there is still a debate about the mechanisms that underlie this effect. In two studies we focused on the propensity to react aggressively (readiness for aggression) on the bases of emotional, cognitive or self-enhancement (personality-immanent) processes. In both studies we first measured readiness for aggression and then ego-depleted participants. Next, in Study 1 we excluded participants (n = 96) using an online ball throwing game and measured displaced aggressive behavior - intensity and duration of an unpleasant noise administrated to a stranger. In Study 2 participants (n = 140) were rejected by a peer on the basis of an interview that they gave and then could retaliate by reducing peer's chance for getting a job. The results show that exclusion effect on displaced aggression was moderated by cognitive readiness for aggression, while rejection effect on retaliatory aggression was shaped by emotional and personality-immanent readiness for aggression as well as ego-depletion. The results were discussed in light of the strength model of self-control by Baumeister, Vohs, and Tice (2007).

Acute Cardiovascular Exercise Counteracts the Effect of Ego-Depletion on Attention: How Ego-Depletion Increases Boredom and Compromises Directed Attention

Prior research implicates ego-depletion in directed-attention failure, but provides few explanations for the effect. I theorize that ego-depletion weakens ones ability to maintain cognitive-arousal in non-stimulating situations, which increases proneness to boredom. In one study, 90 participants first either underwent ego-depletion (white-bear thought-suppression) or a non-depleting control activity (solved arithmetic problems). They then had their arousal manipulated by either performing an arousal-bolstering physical exercise or waited sitting for an equivalent amount of time in a quite room to facilitate low arousal. All participants then completed the continuous performance task (CPT) as a measure of directed-attention. Attention was measured in terms of accuracy (number of errors) on the CPT. Results revealed a moderated-mediation such that without an arousal-inducing exercise, ego-depleted participants experienced greater boredom and performed worse on the CPT. However, with an arousal-inducing exercise, the effect of ego-depletion on CPT performance disappeared and the effect on boredom was reversed.

Self-Control Depletion Does Not Diminish Attitudes About Being Prosocial But Does Diminish Prosocial Behaviors

In three studies, ego-depleted participants reported the same level of affective/cognitive concern for others as control participants, but behaved less prosocially. In Study 1, participants had to sustain cooperation to increase the joint payout to themselves and another player. In Study 2, participants had to restrict their use of a shared resource. In Study 3, ego-depletion failed to produce effects on several measures of concern for others despite large effects found with other manipulations. Results suggest ego-depletion influences behavior by reducing one's ability or motivation to overcome egotistic desires when helping others comes at a cost to the self.

Reduced self-control leads to disregard of an unfamiliar behavioral option: an experimental approach to the study of neuroenhancement

BackgroundNeuroenhancement (NE), the use of psychoactive substances in order to enhance a healthy individual’s cognitive functioning from a proficient to an even higher level, is prevalent in student populations. According to the strength model of self-control, people fail to self-regulate and fall back on their dominant behavioral response when finite self-control resources are depleted. An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that ego-depletion will prevent students who are unfamiliar with NE from trying it.Findings130 undergraduates, who denied having tried NE before (43% female, mean age = 22.76 ± 4.15 years old), were randomly assigned to either an ego-depletion or a control condition. The dependent variable was taking an “energy-stick” (a legal nutritional supplement, containing low doses of caffeine, taurine and vitamin B), offered as a potential means of enhancing performance on the bogus concentration task that followed. Logistic regression analysis showed that ego-depleted participants were three times less likely to take the substance, OR = 0.37, p = .01.ConclusionThis experiment found that trying NE for the first time was more likely if an individual’s cognitive capacities were not depleted. This means that mental exhaustion is not predictive for NE in students for whom NE is not the dominant response. Trying NE for the first time is therefore more likely to occur as a thoughtful attempt at self-regulation than as an automatic behavioral response in stressful situations. We therefore recommend targeting interventions at this inter-individual difference. Students without previous reinforcing NE experience should be provided with information about the possible negative health outcomes of NE. Reconfiguring structural aspects in the academic environment (e.g. lessening workloads) might help to deter current users.

Ego Depletion Increases Risk-Taking

ABSTRACT We investigated how the availability of self-control resources affects risk-taking inclinations and behaviors. We proposed that risk-taking often occurs from suboptimal decision processes and heuristic information processing (e.g., when a smoker suppresses or neglects information about the health risks of smoking). Research revealed that depleted self-regulation resources are associated with reduced intellectual performance and reduced abilities to regulate spontaneous and automatic responses (e.g., control aggressive responses in the face of frustration). The present studies transferred these ideas to the area of risk-taking. We propose that risk-taking is increased when individuals find themselves in a state of reduced cognitive self-control resources (ego-depletion). Four studies supported these ideas. In Study 1, ego-depleted participants reported higher levels of sensation seeking than non-depleted participants. In Study 2, ego-depleted participants showed higher levels of risk-tolerance in critical road traffic situations than non-depleted participants. In Study 3, we ruled out two alternative explanations for these results: neither cognitive load nor feelings of anger mediated the effect of ego-depletion on risk-taking. Finally, Study 4 clarified the underlying psychological process: ego-depleted participants feel more cognitively exhausted than non-depleted participants and thus are more willing to take risks. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.