Showing papers by "Roy F. Baumeister published in 2016"

Strength Model of Self-Regulation as Limited Resource: Assessment, Controversies, Update

Abstract: The strength model of self-regulation holds that self-regulation operates by consuming a limited energy resource, thereby producing a state called ego depletion in which volition is curtailed because of low energy. We present our research program on ego depletion as well as much relevant work contributed by others. Challenges to the theory have emphasized allocation rather than depletion of resources, research participant expectations and obligations, changes in motivation and attention, beliefs and implicit theories, perceptions about depletion and vicarious depletion, glucose anomalies, and feelings of autonomy. We conclude that the theory needs revision and updating to accommodate the new findings, and we indicate the requisite changes. Furthermore, we conclude that the strength model is much better able than the rival accounts to explain all available evidence. Most of the rival accounts are compatible with it and indeed work best by sustaining the assumption that self-regulation relies on a limited resource.

Toward a general theory of motivation: Problems, challenges, opportunities, and the big picture

Abstract: Motivation theories have tended to focus on specific motivations, leaving open the intellectually and scientifically challenging problem of how to construct a general theory of motivation. The requirements for such a theory are presented here. The primacy of motivation emphasizes that cognition, emotion, agency, and other psychological processes exist to serve motivation. Both state (impulses) and trait (basic drives) forms of motivation must be explained, and their relationship must be illuminated. Not all motivations are the same, and indeed it is necessary to explain how motivation evolved from the simple desires of simple animals into the complex, multifaceted forms of human motivation. Motivation responds to the local environment but may also adapt to it, such as when desires increase after satiation or diminish when satisfaction is chronically unavailable. Addiction may be a special case of motivation—but perhaps it is much less special or different than prevailing cultural stereotypes suggest. The relationship between liking and wanting, and the self-regulatory management of motivational conflict, also require explanation by an integrative theory.

Misguided Effort With Elusive Implications

Abstract: In retrospect, the decision to use new, mostly untested procedures1 for a large replication project was foolish. When planning the Registered Replication Report (RRR) on ego depletion (Hagger et al., 2016, this issue), Hagger asked Baumeister for suggestions. Baumeister nominated several procedures that have been used in successful studies of ego depletion for years. But none of Baumeister’s suggestions were allowable due to the RRR restrictions that it must be done with only computerized tasks that were culturally and linguistically neutral. Discussions were stalemated, and we felt pressured to come up with something quickly. We learned of a new study by Sripada et al. (2014) that fit the requirements and passed this along to the RRR team. Since there were no viable other options, that method was chosen. Apparently it matters how much we endorsed this method. To be clear, no one working in either of our laboratories has ever used this procedure in any study (neither the manipulation nor dependent measure). We still do not understand why reaction time variance is a measure of self-control failure (are people overriding some impulse to react with variable speed?), but the idea of “replication” requires that something like the task has been used at least once, and the Sripada et al. paper reported successful results in a major outlet. (Perhaps we should have still objected. But because there were no other viable options, objecting would have meant objecting to the entire RRR, which could have been interpreted as lack of trust in the effect.) Under the circumstances, we understood our approval to mean “Sure, go ahead” and not “Yes, that’s a definitive test of the phenomenon we’ve been studying all these years.” Crucially, we thought the robustness of ego depletion effects would overcome any weaknesses in this new method. That was an unfortunate mistake, partly because the weaknesses seem more serious than we had understood. The manipulation is a computerized version of what is called the e-crossing procedure. This procedure was originally created as a laboratory version of a common self-control task, namely breaking a habit. Self-regulation is typically understood as altering and overriding responses. The e-crossing task works because participants first establish a habit (of using a pencil to cross out every “e” on a page of text) and then must override these habitual responses when more complex rules are introduced. Self-regulation is invoked when the participant sees an “e” and experiences the impulse to cross it off—and then must restrain that impulse. The Sripada and RRR studies skipped the initial key step of establishing a habit. RRR participants simply pressed a button to indicate whether each word has an “e” that is not adjacent to another vowel. Without first instilling the habit, there is nothing to override. This may be a difficult cognitive judgment task, but no impulse is overridden, contrary to the nature of self-control tasks. The RRR says that skipping the initial habit-forming step was justified because other tasks in the literature have done the same, such as a manipulation in which participants are instructed to write a story with words that do not contain the letters “a” or “n” (originally by Schmeichel, 2007). Yet that task is depleting precisely because there most certainly is a very strong habit. An English speaker has spent years writing sentences using all letters of the alphabet, including “a” and “n”. This misunderstanding highlights what may be a problem in the field as a whole in its current focus on replication: It is misguided to focus merely on the simple structure of procedures while disregarding the underlying psychological processes. Scientific hypotheses concern psychological processes, not laboratory procedures. Self-report data from the RRR suggest that the task does not involve self-regulation. Manipulation checks are difficult to obtain with ego depletion, because people cannot usually report on subjective changes indicative of having expended resources in self-regulation. The closest to a reliable measure is self-reported fatigue; negative mood may increase slightly (Hagger, Wood, Stiff, & Chatzisarantis, 2010). Self-report data indicated that RRR participants found the task extremely frustrating but not fatiguing, unlike the usual pattern in ego depletion.2 One question going forward is how to create replication studies that are not constrained to computerized methods stripped of contextual factors. The admirable 652878 PPSXXX10.1177/1745691616652878Baumeister, VohsMisguided Effort With Elusive Implications research-article2016

Pragmatic Prospection: How and Why People Think about the Future:

Abstract: In the present, the past is more knowable than the future—but people think far more about the future than the past. Both facts derive from the principle that the future can be changed whereas the p...

A Meta-Analysis of Social Networking Online and Social Capital:

Abstract: Social networking sites offer new avenues for interpersonal communication that may enable people to build social capital. The meta-analyses reported in this paper evaluated the relationship between social network site (SNS) use and 2 types of social capital: bridging social capital and bonding social capital. The meta-analyses included data from 58 articles gathered through scholarly databases and a hand search of the early publications of relevant journals. Using a random effects model, the overall effect size of the relationship between SNS use and bridging social capital based on k = 50 studies and N = 22,290 participants was r = .32 (95% CI [.27, .37]), and the overall effect size between SNS use and bonding social capital based on k = 43 studies and N = 19,439 participants was r = .26 (95% CI [.22, .31]). The relationships between SNS use and both types of social capital were stronger in men than in women, and the relationship between SNS use and bridging capital was stronger in Western, individualistic countries than Eastern, collectivistic countries. Additional analyses of specific SNS activities indicated that SNS use promotes social capital by facilitating contact and interaction among people who already know each other offline rather than contact with people who were met online. The implication is that SNSs offer a platform to strengthen existing relationships.

Psychology as the Science of Self-Reports and Finger

Abstract: Psychology calls itself the science of behavior, and the American Psychological Association's current "Decade of Behavior" was intended to increase awareness and appreciation of this aspect of the science. Yet some psychological subdisciplines have never directly studied behavior, and studies on behavior are dwindling rapidly in other subdisciplines. We discuss the eclipse of behavior in personality and social psychology, in which direct obser- vation of behavior has been increasingly supplanted by introspective self-reports, hypothetical scenarios, and questionnaire ratings. We advocate a renewed commit- ment to including direct observation of behavior whenever possible and in at least a healthy minority of research projects.

Are groups more or less than the sum of their members? The moderating role of individual identification.

Abstract: This paper seeks to make a theoretical and empirical case for the importance of differentiated identities for group function. Research on groups has found that groups sometimes perform better and other times perform worse than the sum of their individual members. Differentiation of selves is a crucial moderator. We propose a heuristic framework that divides formation of work or task groups into two steps. One step emphasizes shared common identity and promotes emotional bonds. In the other step, which we emphasize, group members take increasingly differentiated roles that improve performance through specialization, moral responsibility, and efficiency. Pathologies of groups (e.g., social loafing, depletion of shared resources/commons dilemmas, failure to pool information, groupthink) are linked to submerging the individual self in the group. These pathologies are decreased when selves are differentiated, such as by individual rewards, individual competition, accountability, responsibility, and public identification. Differentiating individual selves contributes to many of the best outcomes of groups, such as with social facilitation, wisdom-of-crowds effects, and division of labor. Anonymous confidentiality may hamper differentiation by allowing people to blend into the group (so that selfish or lazy efforts are not punished), but it may also facilitate differentiation by enabling people to think and judge without pressure to conform. Acquiring a unique role within the group can promote belongingness by making oneself irreplaceable.

How Often Does Currently Felt Emotion Predict Social Behavior and Judgment? A Meta-Analytic Test of Two Theories

Abstract: Emotions play a prominent role in social life, yet the direct impact of emotions on behavior and judgment remains a point of disagreement. The current investigation used meta-analysis to test two theoretical perspectives. The emotion-as-direct-causation perspective asserts that current emotions guide behavior and judgment, whereas the emotion-as-feedback perspective asserts that anticipated emotions guide behavior and judgment. Although the emotion-as-direct-causation perspective was frequently tested, only 22% of tests were significant. Although the emotion-as-feedback perspective was rarely tested, 87% of tests were significant. Our findings suggest that empirical evidence is weak for the default assumption that emotion is the proximal cause of behavior and judgment. Our preliminary findings also suggest that anticipated emotion reliably impacts social behavior and judgment.

How to make nothing out of something: analyses of the impact of study sampling and statistical interpretation in misleading meta-analytic conclusions

Abstract: The limited resource model states that self-control is governed by a relatively finite set of inner resources on which people draw when exerting willpower. Once self-control resources have been used up or depleted, they are less available for other self-control tasks, leading to a decrement in subsequent self-control success. The depletion effect has been studied for over 20 years, tested or extended in more than 600 studies, and supported in an independent meta-analysis (Hagger, Wood, Stiff, and Chatzisarantis, 2010). Meta-analyses are supposed to reduce bias in literature reviews. Carter, Kofler, Forster, and McCullough’s (2015) meta-analysis, by contrast, included a series of questionable decisions involving sampling, methods, and data analysis. We provide quantitative analyses of key sampling issues: exclusion of many of the best depletion studies based on idiosyncratic criteria and the emphasis on mini meta-analyses with low statistical power as opposed to the overall depletion effect. We discuss two key methodological issues: failure to code for research quality, and the quantitative impact of weak studies by novice researchers. We discuss two key data analysis issues: questionable interpretation of the results of trim and fill and funnel plot asymmetry test procedures, and the use and misinterpretation of the untested Precision Effect Test [PET] and Precision Effect Estimate with Standard Error (PEESE) procedures. Despite these serious problems, the Carter et al. meta-analysis results actually indicate that there is a real depletion effect – contrary to their title.

Buying to Blunt Negative Feelings: Materialistic Escape from the Self:

Abstract: We propose that escape theory, which describes how individuals seek to free themselves from aversive states of self-awareness, helps explain key patterns of materialistic people's behavior. As predicted by escape theory, materialistic individuals may feel dissatisfied with their standard of living, cope with failed expectations and life stressors less effectively than others, suffer from aversive self-awareness, and experience negative emotions as a result. To cope with negative, self-directed emotions, materialistic people may enter a narrow, cognitively deconstructed mindset in order to temporarily blunt the capacity for self-reflection. Cognitive narrowing decreases inhibitions thereby engendering impulsivity, passivity, irrational thought, and disinhibited behaviors, including maladaptive consumption.

Subjective correlates and consequences of belief in free will

Abstract: Four studies measured or manipulated beliefs in free will to illuminate how such beliefs are linked to other aspects of personality. Study 1 showed that stronger belief in free will was correlated with more gratitude, greater life satisfaction, lower levels of perceived life stress, a greater sense of self-efficacy, greater perceived meaning in life, higher commitment in relationships, and more willingness to forgive relationship partners. Study 2 showed that the belief in free will was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction, meaning in life, gratitude, and self-efficacy than either locus of control or implicit person theory. Study 3 showed that experimentally manipulating disbelief in free will caused a reduction in the perceived meaningfulness of life. Study 4 found that inducing a stronger belief in free will caused people to set more meaningful goals for themselves. The possible concern that believers in free will simply claim all manner of positive traits was contradicted by predicted null finding...

Childhood self-control predicts smoking throughout life: Evidence from 21,000 cohort study participants.

Abstract: Objective: Low self-control has been linked with smoking, yet it remains unclear whether childhood self-control underlies the emergence of lifetime smoking patterns. We examined the contribution of childhood self-control to early smoking initiation and smoking across adulthood. Methods: 21,132 participants were drawn from 2 nationally representative cohort studies; the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS) and the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS). Child self-control was teacher-rated at age 10 in the BCS and at ages 7 and 11 in the NCDS. Participants reported their smoking status and number of cigarettes smoked per day at 5 time-points in the BCS (ages 26-42) and 6 time-points in the NCDS (ages 23-55). Both studies controlled for socioeconomic background, cognitive ability, psychological distress, gender, and parental smoking; the NCDS also controlled for an extended set of background characteristics. Results: Early self-control made a substantial graded contribution to (not) smoking throughout life. In adjusted regression models, a 1-SD increase in self-control predicted a 6.9 percentage point lower probability of smoking in the BCS, and this was replicated in the NCDS (5.2 point reduced risk). Adolescent smoking explained over half of the association between self-control and adult smoking. Childhood self-control was positively related to smoking cessation and negatively related to smoking initiation, relapse to smoking, and the number of cigarettes smoked in adulthood. Conclusions: This study provides strong evidence that low childhood self-control predicts an increased risk of smoking throughout adulthood and points to adolescent smoking as a key pathway through which this may occur.

Higher self-control capacity predicts lower anxiety-impaired cognition during math examinations

Abstract: We assumed that self-control capacity, self-efficacy, and self-esteem would enable students to keep attentional control during tests. Therefore, we hypothesized that the three personality traits would be negatively related to anxiety-impaired cognition during math examinations. Secondary school students (N = 158) completed measures of self-control capacity, self-efficacy, and self-esteem at the beginning of the school year. Five months later, anxiety-impaired cognition during math examinations was assessed. Higher self-control capacity, but neither self-efficacy nor self-esteem, predicted lower anxiety-impaired cognition 5 months later, over and above baseline anxiety-impaired cognition. Moreover, self-control capacity was indirectly related to math grades via anxiety-impaired cognition. The findings suggest that improving self-control capacity may enable students to deal with anxiety-related problems during school tests.

The coalitional value theory of antigay bias

Abstract: Research indicates that antigay bias follows a specific pattern (and probably has throughout written history, at least in the West): (a) men evince more antigay bias than women; (b) men who belong to traditionally male coalitions evince more antigay bias than those who do not; (c) antigay bias is targeted more at gay men than at lesbians; and (d) antigay bias is targeted more at effeminate gay men than at masculine gay men. We propose the coalitional value theory (CVT) of antigay bias to explain this pattern. The CVT argues that men evolved psychological systems to facilitate coalitional formation and regulation and that these systems may lead to antigay bias because men perceive gay men as possessing lower coalitional value for traditionally male coalitions. We tested the CVT in 4 studies. In Study 1, gay men were perceived as less masculine than straight men and as less competent at traditionally masculine activities. In Studies 2 and 3, masculine gay men were rated as more competent than and chosen over feminine straight men in traditionally masculine activities. In Study 4, actual coalitional contribution predicted men’s perceptions of other men’s derogation more than did sexual orientation. We also found that men’s preferences for masculinity diminished in nontraditionally masculine tasks such as poetry, suggesting that men’s assessments are contingent upon the nature of the task. This offers a possible palliative for antigay bias: coalitional pluralism, which we discuss.

Introduction to the Special Issue: The Science of Prospection:

Abstract: Psychology's main theories explain human behavior by pointing to the past: childhood experiences, socialization, reinforcement history. Yet recent evidence has suggested that people do not spend mu...

Limited Resources for Self-Regulation: A Current Overview of the Strength Model

Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of my efforts to develop a new model of self-regulation over the past 25 years. The strength model sees self-regulation as dependent on a limited energy resource, and self-regulatory capacity functions like a physical muscle: It seems to get tired after use, it conserves energy for upcoming challenges or when fatigued, and it gets stronger with regular exercise. The same resource is used for decision-making. Recent findings and theoretical challenges have pointed the way toward a new and better theory but in my view have not provided a viable alternative to the limited resource model. Integrating recent work on selective allocation, motivational changes, subjective beliefs, and bodily processes has greatly improved our understanding of self-regulation as a limited capacity.

Alone and Impulsive: Self-regulatory Capacity Mediates and Moderates the Implications of Exclusion

Abstract: Exclusion can be a painful and costly experience. For example, excluded individuals tend to experience greater stress (e.g., Cohen & Wills, 1985; DeLongis, Folkman, & Lazarus, 1988), are more likely to develop physical health problems (e.g., DeLongis, Folkman, & Lazurus, 1988; Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2003), have higher rates of mortality (e.g., Goodwin, Hunt, Key, & Samet, 1987; Lynch, 1979), are more likely to develop mental health problems (e.g., Bhatti, Derezotes, Kim, & Specht, 1989; Bloom, White, & Asher, 1979; Saylor et al., 2012), and are more likely to commit suicide (e.g., Wenz, 1977), compared to individuals who are more accepted by others. Excluded individuals also tend to have greater academic (e.g., Benner, 2011; Guay, Boivin, & Hodges, 1999), employment (e.g., Lauder, Sharkey, & Mummery, 2004; Robinson, O’Reilly, & Wang, 2013), nancial (e.g., Page & Cole, 1991), and legal (e.g., Leary et al., 2003; Sampson & Laub, 1993) diculties than do those who are more accepted.

Self-control, cultural animals, and Big Gods.

Abstract: As Norenzayan et al. cogently argue, religions that proliferated most successfully did so because they facilitated prosociality and cooperation in large-scale, anonymous groups. One important way that religion promotes cooperation may be through improving self-control. In this comment, we cover some potential obstacles to implementing self-control and how religion can overcome them.

The science of consciousness must include its more advanced forms

Abstract: Morsella et al. argue that science should not focus on high forms of consciousness. We disagree. An understanding of high forms of consciousness is invaluable to the scientific study of consciousness. Moreover, it poses challenges to the passive frame theory. Specifically, it challenges the notions that conscious thoughts are not connected and that consciousness serves skeletomotor conflict only.

Differentiating selves facilitates group outcomes.

Abstract: The target article proposed that differentiation of selves is a crucial moderator of group outcomes, such that differentiation of selves contributes to beneficial outcomes of groups while limiting undesirable outcomes. In this response, we aim to complement the target article by refining and expanding several aspects of the theory. We address our conceptualization of optimal group functioning, clarify the term differentiation of selves, comment on the two-step nature of our model, offer theoretical connections and extensions, and discuss applications and opportunities for future research.

Differentiation of individual selves facilitates group-level benefits of ultrasociality

Abstract: Gowdy & Krall's target article complements our recent theorizing on group behavior. In our comment, we elucidate complementary aspects of the two theories and highlight the importance of differentiation of selves for human groups to reap the benefits of ultrasociality. We propose that achieving optimal group outcomes depends on the differentiation of individual selves.