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Category: Project

Description: This article reports a preregistered study in which we attempted to directly replicate an influential study on the ego-depletion effect conducted by Job, Dweck, and Walton (2010, Study 1, N=60). As in the original study, participants (N=187) performed a self-control task (Stroop color-word interference task) after performing the control or depletion version of a letter-cancelation task. Despite extensive analyses, we failed to reproduce Job et al.’s (2010) key findings: (a) a significant main effect of ego depletion (i.e., worse Stroop performance in the depletion condition than in the control condition) and (b) a significant moderation of this ego-depletion effect by individual differences in willpower mindset (i.e., primarily individuals holding the belief that willpower is limited demonstrate the ego-depletion effect). These results suggest that the willpower-mindset moderation effect proposed by Job et al. (2010) may not be as robust as initially suggested or may be applicable under more circumscribed situations.