A Multilab Replication of the Ego Depletion Effect

• Published in: Social psychological & personality science 2021-01, Vol.12 (1), p.14-24
• Main Authors: Dang, Junhua, Barker, Paul, Baumert, Anna, Bentvelzen, Margriet, Berkman, Elliot, Buchholz, Nita, Buczny, Jacek, Chen, Zhansheng, De Cristofaro, Valeria, de Vries, Lianne, Dewitte, Siegfried, Giacomantonio, Mauro, Gong, Ran, Homan, Maaike, Imhoff, Roland, Ismail, Ismaharif, Jia, Lile, Kubiak, Thomas, Lange, Florian, Li, Dan-yang, Livingston, Jordan, Ludwig, Rita, Panno, Angelo, Pearman, Joshua, Rassi, Niklas, Schiöth, Helgi B., Schmitt, Manfred, Sevincer, A. Timur, Shi, Jiaxin, Stamos, Angelos, Tan, Yia Chin, Wenzel, Mario, Zerhouni, Oulmann, Zhang, Li-wei, Zhang, Yi-jia, Zinkernagel, Axel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antisaccade task; Depletion; Ego; ego depletion; Humanities and Social Sciences; multilab; preregistration; Psychology; self-control; Stroop task
• ISSN: 1948-5506; 1948-5514; 1948-5514
• DOI: 10.1177/1948550619887702

There is an active debate regarding whether the ego depletion effect is real. A recent preregistered experiment with the Stroop task as the depleting task and the antisaccade task as the outcome task found a medium-level effect size. In the current research, we conducted a preregistered multilab replication of that experiment. Data from 12 labs across the globe (N = 1,775) revealed a small and significant ego depletion effect, d = 0.10. After excluding participants who might have responded randomly during the outcome task, the effect size increased to d = 0.16. By adding an informative, unbiased data point to the literature, our findings contribute to clarifying the existence, size, and generality of ego depletion.