Revisiting Ego Depletion: Moderators and Measurement

abstract

We developed and validated two web-based tasks to induce and measure ego depletion in two online experiments (N = 122 and N = 788). Ego depletion describes the phenomenon that exerting self-control temporarily reduces people’s capacity to subsequently control themselves. To induce ego depletion, we adapted the e-crossing task, and to measure ego depletion, we adapted the color Stroop task. We successfully induced ego depletion. Participants’ implicit theories about willpower as well as their mood moderated ego depletion. We also discuss several methodological issues and compare different approaches of measuring ego depletion using aggregated reaction times.

Notes

1 If other researchers want to use the task on smartphones, the task can be easily adapted by changing the CSS file governing the layout. The task is already compatible with touch screens.

2 The median reaction time and the ITWP score correlate at r = −.05 in the nondepletion conditions and r = .27 in the depletion condition. This is, of course, just another way of looking at the same interaction.

3 The median reaction time and the ITWP score correlate at r = .04 in the nondepletion conditions and r = .15 in the depletion condition.