A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect
This is the first large coordinated attempt to replicate ego depletion, and it was designed to settle the argument rather than add to it. Twenty-three laboratories ran the same standardised protocol, agreed and registered in advance, with more than two thousand participants in total. The pooled effect was very close to zero, with a confidence interval comfortably including zero. The finding is the strongest single challenge to a model that had been treated as established, and its design removes the usual defences: the protocol was agreed before the data existed, the laboratories were many and varied, and the analysis was specified in advance. The authors are measured in their discussion of what it means for the resource model of self-control. This vault cites it whenever willpower is described as a fuel tank.
This is the first large coordinated attempt to replicate ego depletion, and it was designed to settle the argument rather than add to it. Twenty-three laboratories ran the same standardised protocol, agreed and registered in advance, with more than two thousand participants in total. The pooled effect was very close to zero, with a confidence interval comfortably including zero. The finding is the strongest single challenge to a model that had been treated as established, and its design removes the usual defences: the protocol was agreed before the data existed, the laboratories were many and varied, and the analysis was specified in advance. The authors are measured in their discussion of what it means for the resource model of self-control. This vault cites it whenever willpower is described as a fuel tank.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Hagger, M. S., Chatzisarantis, N. L. D., Alberts, H., et al. (2016). “A multilab preregistered replication of the ego-depletion effect.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(4), 546-573. 23 labs, N = 2,141, d = 0.04, 95% CI [−0.07, 0.15].
Where we use it
- Willpower Is Not a Fuel Tank, Why We Act
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616652873
DOI: 10.1177/1745691616652873