Discrimination Under Ego Depletion: Differential Effects for Perceived Controllable and Uncontrollable Stigmas

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Self-control is crucial for regulating behavior and managing social biases.
• Understanding how self-control affects discrimination against different stigma types is important for social harmony.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of experimentally manipulated self-control on discrimination against groups with controllable versus uncontrollable stigmas.
• To examine the role of ego depletion in modulating intergroup bias.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-nine Canadian university students participated in an experiment.
• Participants underwent either an ego depletion task or a control task.
• Discrimination was measured using a funding allocation task towards various groups.

Main Results:

• Ego depletion led to increased discrimination against an uncontrollable stigma group (Arabs Association).
• Conversely, ego depletion resulted in decreased discrimination against controllable stigma groups (Smokers Rights Association, Fat is Beautiful).

Conclusions:

• Ego depletion may intensify biases against groups with inherent characteristics.
• Reduced self-control can decrease prejudice towards groups perceived as responsible for their stigmatized conditions.