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Social Cognition, Vol. 18, No. 2, 2000, pp. 130-150
ROY F. BAUMEISTER, MARK MURAVEN, AND DIANNE M. TICE Case Reserve University
Making choices, responding actively instead of passively, restraining impulses, and
other acts of self-control and volition all draw on a common resource that is limited and renewable, akin to strength or energy. After an act of choice or self-control, the
self's resources have been expended, producing the condition of ego depletion. In
this state, the self is less able to function effectively, such as by regulating itself or exerting volition. Effects of ego depletion appear to reflect an effort to conserve re
maining resources rather than full exhaustion, although in principle full exhaustion
is possible. This versatile but limited resource is crucial to the self's optimal func
tioning, and the pervasive need to conserve it may result in the commonly heavy re
liance on habit, routine, and automatic processes.
Many of the woes that have afflicted human beings relentlessly for cen
turies seem eminently avoidable if people would only use their powers
of reason to make sensible, deliberate choices. When some line of action leads to disaster, bystanders and guardians shake their heads and ask questions such as "What were you thinking? Why on earth did you do that? Didn't you know better?" From spiritual advisors and gurus to ex
istential philosophers, the wise have exhorted people to focus their full
conscious attention and freedom of will on what they are doing. At a
more mundane level, parents, teachers, and other guardians frequently
berate young people for impulsive actions. Crime, violence, unwanted pregnancy, drug addiction, venereal disease, bankruptcy, and prema
ture deaths could be greatly reduced if people would only do what they already know they should. Whatever the joys and rewards of impulsive
behavior may be, the costs are immense, and many impulsive acts are eventually regretted as foolish and self-destructive.
The persistent human failure to curb impulse and choose thought-
Address correspondence h Roy Baumeister, Dept. of Psychology, Case Western Reserve
University, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106-7123; E-mail: rfb2@po.cwru.edu.
130
EGO DEPLETION: A RESOURCE MODEL
OF VOLITION, SELF-REGULATION,
AND CONTROLLED PROCESSING
EGO DEPLETION 131
fully is not only a major root of personal and social problems, it is also an
endlessly...