Article
No Evidence of the Ego-Depletion Effect across Task Characteristics and Individual Differences: A Pre-Registered Study Public Deposited
Downloadable Content
Download PDF
https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/articles/n296wz75w
- Abstract
- Ego-depletion, a psychological phenomenon in which participants are less able to engage in self-control after prior exertion of self-control, has become widely popular in the scientific community as well as in the media. However, considerable debate exists among researchers as to the nature of the ego-depletion effect, and growing evidence suggests the effect may not be as strong or robust as the extant literature suggests. We examined the robustness of the ego-depletion effect and aimed to maximize the likelihood of detecting the effect by using one of the most widely used depletion tasks (video-viewing attention control task) and by considering task characteristics and individual differences that potentially moderate the effect. We also sought to make our research plan transparent by pre-registering our hypotheses, procedure, and planned analyses prior to data collection. Contrary to the ego-depletion hypothesis, participants in the depletion condition did not perform worse than control participants on the subsequent self-control task, even after considering moderator variables. These findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting ego-depletion is not a reliable phenomenon, though more research is needed that uses large sample sizes, considers moderator variables, and pre-registers prior to data collection.
- Creator
- Date Issued
- 2016-02-10
- Academic Affiliation
- Journal Title
- Journal Issue/Number
- 2
- Journal Volume
- 11
- File Extent
- 1-20
- Editor
- Subject
- Last Modified
- 2019-12-09
- Resource Type
- Rights Statement
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0147770
- Language
Relationships
- In Collection:
Items
Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Visibility | Actions |
---|---|---|---|---|
noEvidenceOfTheEgoDepletionEffectAcrossTaskCharacteristi.pdf | 2019-12-09 | Public | Download |