
Red raspberries. Just viewing this image can — for some — deplete somewhat the self-regulation resource. If this were a photo of chocolate chip cookies, the depletion effect might be even more significant.
You probably know that it's easier to lose weight if the cookie jar is empty. Seems obvious: you can't snack on cookies you don't have. But there's more truth here than cookie shortages can explain. If the cookies aren't there to tempt you, you needn't spend energy resisting temptation. Ego depletion is the idea that energy spent on self-regulation isn't available again until you rest and recover.
The term was coined by Roy Baumeister just about 15 years ago. [Baumeister 1998] The phenomenon has since been repeatedly demonstrated experimentally.
In one experiment, test subjects are presented with two foods — radishes and chocolate chip cookies. Individuals in one group were instructed to eat three radishes and no cookies, and individuals in the other are instructed to eat three cookies and no radishes. All individuals are left alone in a cookie-aroma-filled room with both foods, long enough to tempt them to sample the food they were told to avoid. Later, each subject was given an unsolveable problem, and told to spend as long on solving it as they wished. Those instructed to eat the radishes and resist the cookies spent less time on the unsolveable problem, tried fewer different approaches to solving it, and gave up more quickly than those instructed to sample the cookies.
This experiment and many more like it produce results that suggest that resisting temptation depletes a finite resource, analogous to vigorously exercising a muscle. Your "self-regulation system" tires after a period of use. Unless it's given time to rest and recover, its capability is restricted.
Experiments are almost always so artificial-sounding that we must ask, "What does this have to do with reality?" The answer is, in short, "A whole lot."
Ego depletion Resisting temptation depletes
a finite resource, analogous
to vigorously exercising a muscleexplains the effectiveness of many business tactics that predate its discovery by decades, in industries as unrelated as retailing, cable television, and higher education.
Here's an example. Suppose you have several teammates whose interactions with others usually involve unprovoked attacks, condescension, and insults. You don't feel that it's your place to attempt to alter their behavior. When they attack you, which happens at nearly every meeting, you restrain your anger. You refuse to engage with them in their nastiness.
Ego depletion would predict that in such scenarios, the people who are attacked are less able to regulate their own behavior after the incident. They might indulge in sweets after or during the meeting. They might be rude or abusive to others at an unrelated following meeting that day. They might procrastinate performing tiresome or difficult tasks. They might be snippy with loved ones at home that evening.
These are just some of the predictions of the ego depletion hypothesis. In coming issues, we'll explore these ideas in a variety of workplace circumstances. The possibilities are eye opening. Meanwhile, I'm gonna get a cookie. Top
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Recent research has raised serious questions about the concept of ego depletion. See, for example, Martin S. Hagger and Nikos L. D. Chatzisarantis, "A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect," Perspectives on Psychological Science 11:4, pp. 546-573, 2016. This paper describes a large, coordinated effort to reproduce the main effect that underlies the strength model, with more than 2,000 subjects at 24 different laboratories on several continents. The study failed to reproduce the previously claimed result, which almost conclusively nullifies the theory. However, some, including Baumeister, claim that the experiment was flawed, in that it was inherently unable to find the effect. Daniel Engber has provided a more accessible version of the situation in Slate.
Footnotes
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Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
How to Undermine Your Subordinates
- People write to me occasionally that their bosses undermine them, but I know there are bosses who want
to do more undermining than they are already doing. So here are some tips for bosses aspiring to sink
even lower.
Stalking the Elephant in the Room: I
- The expression "the elephant in the room" describes the thought that most of us are thinking,
and none of us dare discuss. Usually, we believe that in avoidance lies personal safety. But free-ranging
elephants present intolerable risks to both the organization and its people.
Not Really Part of the Team: I
- Some team members hang back. They show little initiative and have little social contact with other team
members. How does this come about?
Availability and Self-Assessments
- In many organizations, employees develop self-assessments as a part of the performance review process.
Because of a little-known effect related to the Availability Heuristic, these self-assessments can be
biased against the employee.
Rescheduling: The Paradox of Politics
- When the current project schedule no longer leads to acceptable results, we must reschedule. Sometimes
political factors compel us to not only delay our results, but also to produce those results in ways
that accommodate organizational politics.
See also Workplace Politics for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming July 16: Responding to Unwelcome Events
- Unwelcome events have two kinds of effects on decision-makers. One set of effects appears as we respond to events that have actually occurred. Another set manifests itself as we prepare for unwelcome events that haven't yet occurred, but which might occur. Making a wrong decision in either case can be costly. Available here and by RSS on July 16.
And on July 23: Microdelegation
- Microdelegation is a style of delegation in which the delegator unintentionally communicates the task to the subordinate in such detail and so repetitively that the subordinate is offended. As a result of this delegation style, many subordinates feel distrusted or suspected of fraud or goldbricking. Available here and by RSS on July 23.
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Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group