A Multilab Replication of the Ego Depletion Effect

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• The ego depletion effect, a decrease in self-control capacity following effortful tasks, is debated.
• A prior experiment reported a medium effect size using the Stroop task for depletion and the antisaccade task for outcome measurement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a large-scale, multi-laboratory replication of the prior ego depletion experiment.
• To provide an unbiased data point to clarify the existence, magnitude, and generalizability of ego depletion.

Main Methods:

• A preregistered, multi-laboratory replication involving 12 labs globally (N = 1,775).
• Utilized the Stroop task as the depleting manipulation and the antisaccade task as the outcome measure.
• Analyzed data including a subset excluding participants with random response patterns in the outcome task.

Main Results:

• A small but statistically significant ego depletion effect was observed (d = 0.10).
• Excluding participants with potentially random responses during the outcome task yielded a larger effect size (d = 0.16).

Conclusions:

• The findings support the existence of a small ego depletion effect.
• This large-scale replication contributes crucial data to the ongoing scientific discussion on self-control and ego depletion.