Ego-depletion, self-control tasks, and the sequential task paradigm in health behavior

Author(s):  
Martin S. Hagger ◽  
Nikos L. D. Chatzisarantis
Author(s):  
Mark Muraven ◽  
Jacek Buczny ◽  
Kyle F. Law

Self-control all too often fails. Despite people’s best intentions and considerable negative outcomes, people often find themselves at the losing end of resisting temptation, combating urges, and changing their behavior. One reason for these failures may be that exerting self-control depletes a limited resource (ego depletion) that is necessary for the success of self-control. Hence, after exerting self-control, individuals are less able resist temptations, fight urges, or stop a behavior that results in a loss of self-control. This chapter reviews the evidence for this theory in a wide variety of domains and examines what behaviors appear to deplete ego strength and how depletion affects behavior. A comprehensive theory that examines how depletion operates is put forth and used to examine some factors that might moderate the depletion effect.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Rajchert

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).


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guojun Zhao ◽  
Fusen Xie ◽  
Yuchen Luo ◽  
Yixuan Liu ◽  
Yuan Chong ◽  
...  

It is well documented that self-control has a positive effect on individuals’ subjective well-being. However, little research has focused on the moderators underlying this relationship. The present research used two studies to examine the moderating role of both trait and state motivation on the relationship between self-control and subjective well-being using psychometric and experimental models, respectively. In Study 1, we explored whether trait motivation (including promotion vs. prevention motivation) moderated the relationship between trait self-control and subjective well-being using a psychometric model. In Study 2, we examined the moderating effects of both trait and state motivation on the effect of state self-control (measured via ego depletion) on subjective well-being using an experimental model. Our results indicated that self-control had a positive effect on subjective well-being, with this relationship being primarily moderated by prevention motivation. When state and trait prevention motivations were congruent, self-control had the most obvious impact on subjective well-being. This study suggests that current understandings around the association between self-control and happiness is limited, implying that motivation should be the focus of future research.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762198973
Author(s):  
Kathleen D. Vohs ◽  
Brandon J. Schmeichel ◽  
Sophie Lohmann ◽  
Quentin F. Gronau ◽  
Anna J. Finley ◽  
...  

We conducted a preregistered multilaboratory project ( k = 36; N = 3,531) to assess the size and robustness of ego-depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Each laboratory implemented one of two procedures that was intended to manipulate self-control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self-control. Confirmatory tests found a nonsignificant result ( d = 0.06). Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed-prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30, SD = 0.15) found that the data were 4 times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect. Exploratory analyses on the full sample (i.e., ignoring exclusion criteria) found a statistically significant effect ( d = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
Natalie Gold ◽  
Magda Osman

According to a popular model of self-control, willpower depends on a limited resource that can be depleted when we perform a task demanding self-control. Over the last five years, the reliability of the empirical evidence supporting this model has become the subject of heated debate. In the present study, we reanalysed data from a large-scale study –Many Labs 3– to test whether performing a depleting task has any effect on a secondary task that also relies on self-control. Although we used a large sample of more than 2,000 participants for our analyses, we did not find any significant evidence of ego-depletion: Persistence on an anagram solving task (a typical measure of self-control) was not affected by previous completion of a Stroop task (a typical depleting task in this literature). Our results suggest that persistence in anagram solving may not be an optimal measure to test depletion effects.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e0157009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Wenzel ◽  
Daniela Zahn ◽  
Zarah Rowland ◽  
Thomas Kubiak

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Friese ◽  
David D. Loschelder ◽  
Karolin Gieseler ◽  
Julius Frankenbach ◽  
Michael Inzlicht

An influential line of research suggests that initial bouts of self-control increase the susceptibility to self-control failure (ego depletion effect). Despite seemingly abundant evidence, some researchers have suggested that evidence for ego depletion was the sole result of publication bias and p-hacking, with the true effect being indistinguishable from zero. Here, we examine (a) whether the evidence brought forward against ego depletion will convince a proponent that ego depletion does not exist and (b) whether arguments that could be brought forward in defense of ego depletion will convince a skeptic that ego depletion does exist. We conclude that despite several hundred published studies, the available evidence is inconclusive. Both additional empirical and theoretical works are needed to make a compelling case for either side of the debate. We discuss necessary steps for future work toward this aim.


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