Ego Depletion Paradigm

Also known as: Self-Control Depletion Paradigm, Dual-Task Self-Control Paradigm, Strength Model Paradigm

The ego depletion paradigm, introduced by Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, and Tice in 1998, tests the strength model of self-control, which holds that acts of self-regulation draw on a limited, shared resource that becomes temporarily depleted with use. In the classic dual-task design, participants first perform a task requiring self-control -- such as resisting tempting food, suppressing emotion, or overriding a habitual response -- or an equivalent task without such demands, and then perform a second, unrelated self-control task. The prediction is that those who exerted self-control on the first task perform worse on the second, exhibiting ego depletion. The 1998 demonstrations were highly influential and generated a vast literature, but large-scale replication efforts in the 2010s yielded weak or inconsistent results, making ego depletion a central case in debates about replicability and prompting theoretical revisions and stricter methodological standards.