What Is Ego Depletion?
Think about how you feel after a long, busy day. After running errands, working on projects, and rushing to appointments, do you still feel like you have the energy to work on your goals? Once the day was done, you probably want to collapse in front of the TV and avoid doing anything at all.
The reason you might find yourself so exhausted and burned out after a hard day can be influenced by what psychologists refer to as the ego-depletion effect.
What Is Ego Depletion?
People are often faced with urges, desires, and natural tendencies that demand satisfaction. Giving in to such feelings is not always realistic, socially acceptable, or even healthy. In order to deal with such challenges, people must exert self-control in order to regulate their actions. Very often, we need to delay gratification of these urges until a more appropriate time and place.
Such self-management takes a great deal of mental effort, both cognitive and emotional. Some of these efforts require less willpower, while others demand much more. Even relatively minor acts of self-control can take a toll.
Ego depletion happens when people use up their available willpower on one task. As a result, they are unable to exert the same level of self-control on subsequent, often unrelated tasks.
Willpower is a limited resource. The idea behind this theory is that willpower is like a muscle in that it can be both strengthened and fatigued. For example, if you exhaust yourself doing sprints, you will be less able to perform other physical tasks.
Research has suggested that willpower and self-control are much the same. If you use your available energy and reach a state of ego depletion, you will have less self-control when faced with ensuing tasks.
Self-control is important. Having good self-control is beneficial in a number of ways. People who possess high levels of self-control may have better relationships and higher achievement levels. Those who lack self-control, on the other hand, can experience social conflict and poor academic performance.
Research
The concept of ego depletion has taken some hard knocks in recent years. Some reviews of the research have suggested that the effect may be less powerful than previously believed. And an updated meta-analysis concluded that the ego depletion does not exist at all.
Other researchers have proposed that ego depletion is not merely a result of draining limited self-control resources. Instead, they suggest that shifts in motivation, attention, and emotion play a critical role.
In a study exploring this theory, participants first completed a task designed to deplete willpower. Some of the participants were then told that the purpose of the study was to provide evidence supporting a new therapy that would help people with Alzheimer's disease.
Participants who had been given this incentive were motivated to perform well for the benefit of Alzheimer's patients, leading them to outperform those in the control group. Motivation, the research suggests, plays an important part in ego depletion.
Causes
A variety of factors can contribute to ego depletion and make it harder to control yourself and regain your willpower, including:
Emotional distress: If you're feeling emotional distress, your willpower will be depleted more quickly.
Unfamiliarity: It takes more energy to try something new.
Illusory fatigue: If you think a situation will be mentally taxing, you'll become mentally fatigued faster.
Low blood sugar: Having low blood sugar can make it more difficult to resist temptation.
Choice: If you're forced to do something, you'll have less self-control than if you were allowed to make your own decision.
Cognitive dissonance: Doing or saying something that contradicts your beliefs can diminish your self-control.
Heart rate: Researchers have found that more your heart rate varies, the less self-control you have.
Hormones: Women have been found to experience decreased self-control during premenstrual syndrome, as the ovaries work harder during this phase of menstruation.
Age: Older people may be more resistant to ego depletion than their younger counterparts.
Examples
There are many examples of how ego depletion can impact your behaviors in both large and small ways. What might happen if you find yourself low on self-control due to ego depletion?
Giving Up on Your Weight-Loss Goals
Dieting is one of the most obvious examples of how ego depletion can sabotage your willpower. You might spend all day diligently sticking to your diet. You eat a healthy breakfast and lunch, and even resist the sweet snacks that a co-worker brings into the office during your mid-afternoon break.
That night, as you arrive home from work, you find that your resolve has grown weak and you no longer have the self-control to stick to your diet.
Because you have expended so much mental energy throughout the day resisting the urge to indulge, you have reached a state of ego depletion by dinner time. Instead of eating the healthy meal you planned, you order take-out from your favorite fast-food restaurant and spend the evening watching TV and snacking on chips.
Less Likely to Help Others
Ego depletion has also been shown to have an influence on what is known as prosocial behavior, or social interactions designed to help others. When people reflect back on their own behaviors, they sometimes experience feelings of guilt. It is these guilty feelings that sometimes lead people to behave in prosocial ways.
Studies have shown that people who are ego depleted experience fewer feelings of guilt. In studies where people were induced into an ego depleted state, these participants were less likely to experience feelings of guilt and therefore less likely to engage in prosocial actions.
Effects
So what impact does ego depletion actually have on your day-to-day life? There are a number of ways that this phenomenon can influence your behaviors and decisions:
Dieting
Researchers have found that chronic dieters are more prone to ego depletion than non-dieters14 . Because dieters apply so much willpower to controlling their food intake, they become more prone to losing self-control in the face of temptation.
For example, in one study participants (some who were dieting and some not) had to either sit next to a bowl of tempting snacks or far away from the desirable treats.
When the participants were later given the chance to eat ice cream, those who were dieting and had to sit right next to the bowl of treats ate more ice cream than the other participants. Because they had to use so much willpower to resist eating the snacks, these participants depleted their self-control resources.
Decision-Making
Studies have also found that when shoppers experience ego depletion, they are more likely to make poor or impulsive purchasing decisions.16 The sheer number of choices that consumers face can lead to such depletion. Consumers are forced to weigh an enormous number of choices. This complexity leads shoppers to become overwhelmed and frustrated.
Once a state of low self-control has been reached, buyers will purchase items based on simple criteria such as the cheapest item or the product linked to higher status. You have probably experienced this yourself if you have ever found yourself grabbing something off the shelf just because it was the lowest priced or a name brand that you recognized.
Performance
Mental toughness and determination are critical for athletic performance, but researchers have found that these tend to decline following difficult mental tasks.17 This suggests that the depletion of willpower due to mental demands can actually impair performance on physical tasks. For student-athletes, this might mean that taking a challenging exam right before a game might actually hurt their performance.
Substance Use
Some research suggests that depleting self-regulation can also leave people susceptible to impulsive behaviors, including excessive or chronic alcohol consumption.18 This can be challenging for individuals prone to substance use or abuse. Exhausting self-control on unrelated tasks might then make it more difficult to say no when temptation strikes. Ego depletion has also been linked to quitting smoking, contributing to smoking cessation failure.
Prevention
Ego depletion can have a serious impact on your motivation, success, and performance. So what can you do to minimize the effects of this drain on willpower and self-control?
Improve Your Mood
Researchers have found that being in a positive mood can have a beneficial impact on self-control. In some studies, ego depleted participants who had their moods boosted by watching comedy films actually performed just as well on self-control tasks as non-ego depleted participants.
Change Your Outlook
In one study, researchers found that participants who viewed themselves as tired were also more likely to experience ego depletion.21 Those who were able to step back and focus more on the big picture rather than just their own self-perceptions were able to reverse this effect. By focusing on your overall goals rather than just your feelings in the moment, you can minimize the impact of ego depletion.
Think About What Matters to You
Research has also shown that acts of self-affirmation can counteract the effects of ego depletion.22 Self-affirmation refers to any behavior or thought that boosts integrity of the self. One simple but highly effective form of self-affirmation involves expressing your core values—the beliefs that you hold dear. During times when you are feeling exhausted and stressed, take a moment to remind yourself of the things that matter to you the most.
Prioritize Sleep
Sleep resets your self-control and provides you with the mental energy needed to have willpower throughout the day. Similarly, lack of sleep makes self-control more difficult. Think about how much harder it is to resist junk food when you're sleep deprived than when you have a good night's rest.
Practice Stress Management
Managing your stress can not only help strengthen your self-control, but it can help you better manage those areas in your life that are depleting your energy and willpower. Taking time to practice relaxation strategies throughout the day, like deep breathing or mindfulness meditation, can also help recharge your mental energy.