The Sticky Anchor Hypothesis: Ego Depletion Increases Susceptibility to Situational Cues

Self-control depletion has been linked both to increased selfish behavior and increased susceptibility to situational cues. The present research tested two competing hypotheses about the consequence of depletion by measuring how people allocate rewards between themselves and another person. Seven experiments analyzed behavior in standard dictator games and reverse dictator games, settings in which participants could take money from another person. Across all of these experiments, depleted participants made smaller changes to the initial allocation, thereby sticking closer to the default position (anchor) than non-depleted participants. These findings provide support for a “sticky anchor hypothesis,” which states that the effects of depletion on behavior are influenced by the proximal situational cues rather than by directly stimulating selfishness per se. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. key words self-control; self-regulation; depletion; selfishness; prosocial behavior; dictator game When people use self-control, do they subsequently seek to gratify selfish desires, grabbing what they can for themselves? Much research would seem to suggest so (Achtziger, Alós-Ferrer, & Wagner, 2016; Halali, BerebyMeyer, & Ockenfels, 2013; Moore & Loewenstein, 2004; Osgood & Muraven, 2015; Gino, Schweitzer, Mead, & Ariely, 2011; Mead, Baumeister, Gino, Schweitzer, & Ariely, 2009; Cantarero & Tilburg, 2014; Vohs, Baumeister, & Ciarocco, 2005; DeWall, Baumeister, Gailliot, & Maner, 2008). Some of us began with that hypothesis but were led to entertain a competing hypothesis. The current experiments tested the hypothesis that people who use self-control subsequently become less able to overcome the influence of circumstance, so they act in accordance with what the situation impels. Abundant evidence indicates that self-regulation functions as if dependent on a limited resource. After initial acts of self-control, subsequent self-control suffers (for a metaanalysis, see Hagger, Wood, Stiff, & Chatzisarantis, 2010), indicating that some psychological or physiological resource has been reduced. The state of reduced capacity for self-control following initial exertion has been dubbed “ego depletion” (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998). For instance, after individuals regulated their emotions during a poignant video, they were subsequently more likely to give in to an ice cream temptation (Vohs & Heatherton, 2000). After overcoming a temptation to eat chocolates, participants were subsequently less persistent when solving puzzles (Baumeister et al., 1998). After writing an essay while taking care to avoid forbidden letters, participants were also more likely to engage in a temptation to cheat (Mead et al., 2009). Other studies have also documented effects of ego depletion in impairing selfpresentation, in interfering with executive control, and in increasing susceptibility to social influence techniques (Janssen, Fennis, Pruyn, & Vohs, 2008; Schmeichel, 2007; Vohs et al., 2005). The ego depletion effect has been replicated in a wide range of contexts in which prior exertion of self-control renders participants less able to subsequently override their impulses (see Baumeister & Vohs, 2016b, for a recent overview). The present investigation tested competing hypotheses about the state of ego depletion by exploring its effects on how people allocate rewards between themselves and another person. Both hypotheses assume that mental executive control would be weakened by depletion. This state could loosen the restraints barring selfishness and thus hinder prosociality, such that people would do whatever benefits themselves even at the expense of others. Alternatively, it could increase their susceptibility to situational cues, so that people would behave in line with what salient cues prescribe. There is concern that the depletion effect may be smaller in magnitude than reported in many published papers owing to small-study effects (Carter & McCullough, 2014). Additionally, the depletion effect was not replicated in a large scale pre-registered replication project (Hagger et al., 2016). We believe that the results of both papers should be interpreted with caution owing to methodological issues (Baumeister & Vohs, 2016a; Dang, 2016; Inzlicht et al., 2016). Nonetheless, we aimed to address these concerns in the current paper by replicating several experiments with large sample sizes. We are optimistic that a clearer picture of the true effect size of depletion will emerge over time as additional replication projects and meta-analyses are conducted. *Correspondence to: Sachin Banker, Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. E-mail: sachin.banker@eccles. utah.edu Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, J. Behav. Dec. Making, 30: 1027–1040 (2017) Published online 30 May 2017 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/bdm.2022