Neuropsychologia 65 (2014) 313319

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Neuropsychologia
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/neuropsychologia

Self-regulation, ego depletion, and inhibition

Roy F. Baumeister a,b,c,d
a
Florida State University, University in Tallahassee, FL, USA
b
King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
c
VU Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
d
Russell Sage Foundation, New York, NY, USA

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Available online 19 August 2014 Inhibition is a major form of self-regulation. As such, it depends on self-awareness and comparing
Keywords: oneself to standards and is also susceptible to uctuations in willpower resources. Ego depletion is the
Self-regulation state of reduced willpower caused by prior exertion of self-control. Ego depletion undermines inhibition
Ego depletion both because restraints are weaker and because urges are felt more intensely than usual. Conscious
Inhibition inhibition of desires is a pervasive feature of everyday life and may be a requirement of life in civilized,
Intention cultural society, and in that sense it goes to the evolved core of human nature. Intentional inhibition not
only restrains antisocial impulses but can also facilitate optimal performance, such as during test taking.
Self-regulation and ego depletion may also affect less intentional forms of inhibition, even chronic
tendencies to inhibit. Broadly stated, inhibition is necessary for human social life and nearly all societies
encourage and enforce it.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Sabbath holy is generally implemented by not performing a wide

assortment of activities on that day (though also attending
Inhibition is one form of self-regulation. Self-regulation can be religious services or doing other positive things may also be
broadly dened as overriding or altering responses, especially as involved). Likewise, the commandment to honor one's parents is
guided by standards of desirable responses (e.g., Baumeister, likely a combination of doing and not doing.
Heatherton, & Tice, 1994; Carver & Scheier, 1981, 1982). Inhibiting
a response (that is, intervening to prevent the response from being
felt or acted upon) clearly ts that denition. Infact, after survey- 2. Self-regulation, feedback loops, and ego depletion
ing diverse research literatures, Baumeister et al. (1994) estimated
that 8090% of self-regulation in everyday life consists of stopping A highly inuential model of self-regulation was proposed by
a response. That includes resisting desires and impulses, shutting Carver and Scheier (1981, 1982) based on cybernetic theory (e.g.,
unwelcome thoughts out of one's mind, and stiing emotions. In Powers, 1973). Their model emphasized the feedback loop on
principle, self-regulation can be used to prolong or increase supervisory monitoring. The self-regulator tests the reality against
emotions, but in practice the most common form of emotion the standard. If the reality falls short, an operation is performed to
regulation is trying to reduce bad feelings. rectify the difference, the success of which is veried by another
The primacy of inhibition that is, the fact that the majority of test. Testing can be repeated intermittently until the operation
self-regulation acts involve stopping a prepotent response can be reaches success. Once the test indicates that reality matches the
seen in moral rules. Rules restricting and prohibiting various acts standard, the loop is exited, and that self-regulation process is
are far more common in morality than are rules prescribing and terminated.
demanding actions. To use one familiar example, Ten Command- To illustrate, one might imagine a person saving money. He has
ments articulated in the JudeoChristian Bible mostly specify a nancial goal of saving a certain amount each month, and he
what thou shalt not do. Eight of the ten specify what behaviors compares his actions against that standard. It is necessary to
are forbidden. Even the other two are not purely prescriptive or inhibit other expenditures in order to reach that target. Once he
promotional requirements. The commandment to keep the has reached his monthly goal, he does not have to regulate his
saving until the next month.
Carver and Scheier's theory grew out of their research on self-
E-mail address: [email protected] awareness, and indeed they theorized that one major purpose of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.08.012
0028-3932/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
314 R.F. Baumeister / Neuropsychologia 65 (2014) 313319

human self-awareness was to facilitate self-regulation. This theo- Baumeister, Stillman, & Gailliot, 2007), inappropriate sexual
retical approach helped them elucidate the process of monitoring responses (Gailliot & Baumeister, 2007b), prejudice (Muraven,
that guides self-regulation, but that emphasis meant that the 2008), overeating of unhealthy food (Vohs & Heatherton, 2000),
operation phase did not receive much attention by them and alcohol consumption (Muraven, Collins, & Neinhaus, 2002), and
other early researchers. The operation phase has been the focus impulsive spending (Vohs & Faber, 2007).
of other research programs, however, including the present Subsequent ndings have added important aspects to the
author's. strength model. First, ego depletion does not mean that the brain
The initial survey of research literatures on self-regulation led has run out of fuel, as was rst proposed. (Indeed, the word
Baumeister et al. (1994) to hypothesize that regulating depended depletion has two meanings, referring to partial and total reduction
on a limited resource, akin to strength or energy. Although the folk in a resource, and this ambiguity has confused some.) Instead, it
notion of willpower contained the idea that some sort of energy is appears that most ego depletion ndings represent an effort to
needed for self-control, hardly any psychological theorizing at that conserve a resource that is only somewhat diminished (Muraven,
time invoked energy models. The proposal that self-regulation Shmueli, & Burkley, 2006). The analogy of a muscle is apt: As
required and consumed energy was therefore fairly radical, and it muscles get tired, the body naturally seeks to conserve energy,
was certainly at odds with the prevailing style of theorizing that long before the point of exhaustion is reached. Hence people in the
featured information processing. state of ego depletion can still self-regulate effectively if an
The initial studies were carefully set up to distinguish energy important situation arises and they are accordingly motivated to
models from two sets of rival theories. An energy model is based do so (e.g, Slessareva & Muraven, 2003; see also DeWall,
on the idea that a limited resource is expended by self-regulation, Baumeister, Mead & Vohs, 2011).
and so performance on the second self-regulation task will be Because ego depletion is typically a matter of conserving
worse than the rst (because some energy is depleted). In a slightly depleted resource, its effects can be overcome with a
contrast, information-processing models suggest that performance variety of cognitive and motivational stimulants. For example,
should improve on the second self-regulation task, because the offering a cash incentive, or inducing people to think their will-
rst one has primed or otherwise activated the relevant mental power is unlimited, can produce good performance despite an
programs. A third view from developmental psychology the view initial amount of ego depletion (Job, Dweck, & Walton, 2010;
of self-regulation as a skill. Skill does not change from one trial to Muraven & Slessareva, 2003). However, as ego depletion becomes
the next but can improve slowly over many trials. increasingly severe, these other procedures become less effective
The energy hypothesis received preliminary support in two sets at counteracting the behavioral decrements of ego depletion
of laboratory experiments by Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, (Vohs, Baumeister, & Schmeichel, 2013). The reason for these is
and Tice (1998) and Muraven, Tice, and Baumeister (1998). These most likely that the body has ample reserves of energy, which it
tested the hypothesis that regulating oneself, such as by inhibiting conserves after some energy has been expended. When motiva-
one incipient response, would use up some energy and thereby tion (e.g., the chance to win money) is high, however, the person
cause impairment in performance of a subsequent act of self- expends more from the reserves. Likewise, the belief that one's
regulation. Most of the studies involved intentional inhibition. To willpower is unlimited can cause the person to expend energy
deplete willpower, participants in various studies were rst more freely rather like people might spend more money if they
instructed to stie emotional responses to an upsetting lm or came to believe that their bank account was unlimited.
to block an intrusive thought out of their minds (Muraven et al., The limited resource is used for more than self-control. Vohs
1998). In other studies, they rst formed a habit and then had to et al. (2008) showed that making choices depletes the same
break it, or they had to resist the temptation to eat chocolate and resource, thereby impairing subsequent self-control. Conversely,
instead consume unappetizing radishes. Participants who had initial acts of self-control impair subsequent decision-making
undergone these procedures subsequently performed worse on (Pocheptsova, Amir, Dhar, & Baumeister, 2009). Initiative, as in
other, quite different and seemingly unrelated tests of self-regula- responding actively rather than taking a passive approach or
tion, such as perseverance in the face of failure, or maintaining a choosing the default option, also depends on the same resource
poker face despite provocative humor. and suffers when people are depleted (Vohs, Baumeister, Vonasch,
The state of reduced self-regulatory capacity stemming from Pocheptsova & Dhar, 2014). There is some evidence that planning
prior exertion of self-control was dubbed ego depletion by is also involved (Webb & Sheeran, 2003).
Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, and Tice (1998). The term was Taken together, these ndings on decision-making, initiative,
chosen in homage to Freud, because he may have been the last and planning indicate that the same energy resource is used for far
major theorist to posit that the human self consists partly of more than intentional inhibition, though inhibition remains a
energy sources and processes. To be sure, Freud's ideas about major category of its applications. Baumeister (2008, 2014) pro-
energy and self were underdeveloped and led in many directions posed that the philosophical and folk concept of free will is an apt
that have no resemblance to ego depletion theory and the so- umbrella term for all these interrelated functions. That is, the
called strength model of self-regulation (Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, expenditure of energy in volition may be the psychological reality
2007). The use of the Freudian term was meant simply to behind the idea of free will.
recognize that Freud had invoked energy and that after his
death, energy largely vanished from self theory for half a century.
The basic ego depletion pattern has been well replicated with
many different procedures, as conrmed by a meta-analysis by 3. Glucose: fuel for inhibition?
Hagger, Stiff, Wood, and Chatzisarantis (2010) that integrated over
a hundred experiments by many different laboratories. An infor- Another line of work has explored the idea that glucose is a
mal count suggests that the volume of similar published ndings major part of the resource behind self-control. Glucose is a
has more than doubled in the few years since then. chemical in the bloodstream that conveys energy to the brain,
Inhibition is impaired during ego depletion. Assorted ndings other organs, and muscles. Initial discussion of the strength model
indicate that depleted persons fail to inhibit a broad range of had treated energy and willpower as metaphors, but it was
actions and responses that they would otherwise (i.e., if not plausible that those processes were linked to the body's actual
depleted) inhibit successfully. These include aggression (DeWall, energy dynamics, through glucose.
 R.F. Baumeister / Neuropsychologia 65 (2014) 313319 315

Gailliot et al. (2007) provided experimental evidence for three stores, and so it allocates selectively and as depletion increases,
preliminary conclusions. First, they found that blood glucose levels it increasingly resists further allocation. If the person is given
were lower after people engaged in effortful self-regulation a reason to think that it can afford to allocate more without running
(including intentional inhibition), suggesting that the act of low, then depletion effects are mitigated. Several ndings point to
inhibiting a response used up glucose in the bloodstream. This this conclusion. Job et al. (2010) found that convincing people that
nding t the view that self-regulating consumed energy. How- willpower is unlimited counteracted depletion effects. This see-
ever, subsequent work has not consistently replicated the nding mingly conrms the view that there is no need to conserve a
that blood glucose levels drop from before to after acts of resource that is unlimited. (In fact, Ainsworth, Baumeister, &
intentional inhibition or other self-regulation. In retrospect, even Boroshuk, 2014, have found that belief in unlimited willpower
the initial evidence might have gotten a boost in signicance from causes an increase in blood glucose levels in response to depletion,
a fortuitous control condition. Hence at present it seems unlikely which ts the view that the body simply retrieves more glucose
that ego depletion's effects are caused by a shortage of glucose in from its stores when it is convinced that its stores are effectively
the bloodstream. unlimited.) In a similar vein, Molden et al. (2012) showed that
In contrast, the second and third conclusions appear correct (see some depletion effects can be eliminated just by having people
Baumeister & Vohs, 2014/submitted for publication). The second was swish a glucose drink around in their mouths and spit out. Some
that low levels of blood glucose predict poor self-regulation. This was glucose is metabolized in the mouth, and so that may be sufcient
well established long before social psychologists began to study to serve as a cue to the body that more glucose is coming, thereby
glucose, as nutritionists and other researchers had linked low glucose apparently reducing any need to conserve.
or problems with glucose metabolizing (e.g., diabetes) to various self-
control deciencies (for review, see Gailliot & Baumeister, 2007a).
Experimental manipulations of low glucose have been shown to 4. Importance of intentional inhibition
cause impulsive, uninhibited behavior.
The third conclusion was that receiving a dose of glucose Although it seems clear that some nonhuman animals some-
counteracts ego depletion. Self-regulatory performance among times inhibit responses (e.g., Miller, DeWall, Pattison, Molet, and
non-depleted persons seems not to get any benet from glucose, Zentall, (2012)), deliberate and intentional inhibition is probably
but depleted persons who consume glucose perform as well as far more common among humans. The difference is sufciently
non-depleted ones. The typical procedure has been to give striking as to suggest that a vital aspect of human evolution was a
participants a glass of lemonade, by random assignment swee- substantial improvement in the neurological and psychological
tened with either sugar or diet sweetener. The drinks taste equally mechanisms for inhibition. Among other factors, the increased
good and indeed most participants cannot tell the difference, but volume of the frontal cortex probably facilitated these inhibitory
the sugared lemonade counteracts depletion whereas the diet functions.
sweetener has no effect (e.g., Gailliot, et al., 2007). This effect has Why? One long effort to construct a new theory of human
been well replicated in other laboratories and in my own (e.g., nature based on modern psychological laboratory ndings led
Alquist, Baumeister & Tice, 2014; McMahon & Scheel, 2010; Wang ultimately to the conclusion that distinctively human traits are
& Dvorak. 2010). largely adaptations to facilitate culture (Baumeister, 2005). Briey,
Thus, one way to improve intentional inhibition is to give all living things address the problems of survival and reproduction,
people more glucose, especially when they have already expended and humankind developed a highly unusual strategy for dealing
resources. To be sure, this raises something of a conundrum for the with them. Humans use culture, which is understood as an
millions of dieters, who seek to use their powers of inhibition advanced kind of social life that involves organized systems,
toward the goal of inhibiting eating. One needs fuel (glucose) to sharing information and the collective accumulation knowledge,
regulate and inhibit eating, but without eating, one does not get joint task performance based on interlocking and complementary
that fuel. Fortunately, glucose does not come solely from sugar but performance of differentiated roles, morality, and exchange. This
can be made from other foods. A possible implication is therefore has proven to be a highly effective strategy, especially when
that dieters might seek rst to ll up on healthy, non-fattening measured by the biological criteria of survival and reproduction,
foods such as protein, which will strengthen their glucose reserves but it requires advanced psychological capabilities (which is why
so as to enable them to resist fattening temptations. other species, lacking those capabilities, have not embraced
The failure to nd consistent drops in blood glucose helped culture as their biological strategy).
stimulate Beedie and Lane (2012) to propose that self-regulatory Inhibition is important for culture. This point, too, was antici-
changes are based on allocation of glucose rather than literal pated by Freud (1930), among other writers. Civilized human life is
depletion. They noted that the human body has ample stores of not compatible with expressing every feeling and enacting every
glucose and certainly in modern life is under no genuine danger of impulse. Culture is essentially a system with rules for how to
running out. They suggested that the human body decides behave. When most people follow most of the rules most of the
whether to allocate some of its stored energy (in glucose form) time, the system can deliver immense benets, culminating in the
to a particular challenge or not, and that decision is what improvements in survival and reproduction (not to mention
determines whether self-regulation suffers. quality of life). But it is vital that people inhibit many impulses
The nding that depleted people can perform and self-regulate to break the rules. These may simply be orthogonal to the event,
quite effectively if sufciently motivated (e.g., Muraven & such as if a desire to eat, ght, or urinate were to arise during
Slessareva, 2003) supports the allocation view. Baumeister and a lecture or concert. In other cases, the rules require people to
Vohs (2014/submitted for publication) have argued, however, that overcome natural impulses, so that (for example) trading partners
the allocation theory works best in combination with the limited will give each other fair value rather than selshly cheating each
resource view, rather than as a replacement for it. Among other other so as to maximize one's own benet. Economic trade is
arguments, selective allocation of a resource is itself usually a sign essentially absent in other species, and there are even arguments
that the resource is limited and can be depleted. After all, there is that the advent of trade was a decisive determinant of success in
generally no need for selective allocation if a resource is unlimited. the competition among hominids. Compared to their contempor-
Hence, the most plausible current view is that there are ary early (Cro-Magnon) humans, for example, Neanderthals had
extensive stores of glucose but the body resists running down its equally large brains and more brawn, but they were far inferior in
316 R.F. Baumeister / Neuropsychologia 65 (2014) 313319

developing trade and exchange, which proved their undoing once numerous studies showing that students with test anxiety per-
the trade-happy Cro-Magnons entered their territory (Horan, form worse than other students but also cited numerous studies
Bulte, & Shogren, 2005). showing no effect. In their experiments, ego depletion proved a
Thus, the success of humankind owed a great debt to inhibi- potent moderator of both state and trait test anxiety. Depleted
tion, in the sense of being able to resist natural impulses and students at progressively higher levels of test anxiety performed
desires so as to follow the rules that make culture possible. As progressively worse on the test than those at lower levels of
evidence for the importance and prevalence of inhibition in anxiety. But among non-depleted participants, test anxiety had no
everyday life, an experience sampling study by Hofmann, effect, even seeming to hint at a slight increase, probably because
Baumeister, Frster, and Vohs (2012); (also Hofmann, Vohs, & the anxiety heightens arousal and alertness.
Baumeister, 2012) obtained reports of desire at randomly chosen The implication is that effective inhibition facilitates positive
points as people went about their daily activities. This work performance. When willpower is at full strength, students can shut
uncovered a great deal of inhibition. People reported having a test anxiety out of their thoughts and prevent worries from
desire about half the time they were awake and reported resisting interfering with focusing on the test. When one is ego depleted,
(i.e., inhibiting) 38% of those desires. Extrapolating from those however, worries intrude rather than being shut out, and the
responses, one can calculate that the average modern citizen person stops focusing on the test. The participants in these studies
spends three to four hours each day inhibiting desires. Most if reported just such struggles with intrusive thoughts, and the
not all of that resisting was presumably intentional. measured degree of such intrusions mediated the effects of
Moreover, comparisons among different categories of desire anxiety and depletion on performance.
suggested that the most commonly conicted and resisted desires
are the ones most incompatible with workplace activities. Partici-
pants reported having to resist desires to sleep, have sex, and play 6. Feelings, inhibition, and the subjective side of ego depletion
games, all of which are generally frowned upon by employers.
Desires compatible with the workplace (e.g., to have coffee or tea) Given the widespread impact of ego depletion on behavior,
created much less conict and were less prone to be inhibited. it would seemingly be helpful for there to be some subjective
Consistent with the strength model, Hofmann, Vohs, et al. signal that one is in that state. However, multiple efforts to identify
(2012) showed that people become less effective at inhibiting a specic feeling that indicates ego depletion have failed. The
desires as the day wears on, if they deplete their willpower meta-analysis by Hagger, Wood, Stiff, and Chatzisarantis (2010)
resisting other desires. The researchers devised a proxy measure found only two very weak changes in subjective states associated
of ego depletion by calculating how often and how recently each with ego depletion. Neither was signicant in most studies that
participant had reported resisting desires previously that same have measured them, but such tiny effects can become signicant
day, and this measure correlated with greater yielding to other in meta-analysis thanks to the greatly enhanced statistical power
desires that one sought to resist. (It had no effect on desires that that comes from aggregating large quantities of data from many
were not resisted, just as the strength model would predict). studies.
Thus, it appears that intentional inhibition is a regular feature The rst is fatigue. Altogether, depleted people report being
of daily life for most people. Moreover, all that inhibition depends tired or fatigued slightly more often than non-depleted partici-
on a limited resource that does become depleted as the day wears pants. This effect seemingly corroborates the muscle analogy,
on. Broadly, this work ts the view that inhibiting desires is a vital indicating that energy has been depleted from exertion. However,
part of what enables human social life to proceed in ways that the signicant nding could also arise because many people get
improve people's chances for survival and reproduction and inadequate sleep and normally must resist desires to rest and
enable progress to enrich quality of life. sleep (Hofmann, Baumeister, et al., 2012). So it is possible that ego
depletion simply makes some people less able to suppress the
feelings they already have, rather than that ego depletion causes
5. Inhibition that facilitates fatigue. Thus, it is possible but not conclusively established that
intentional inhibition causes fatigue.
Intentional inhibition and other forms of self-regulation have The other nding was that depleted people reported a slight
applications that extend beyond obeying rules. Participation in increase in overall negative affect. This nding also was too small
human culture often involves performing complex tasks, and to be signicant in most research samples but emerged from
effective performance can benet from inhibiting other responses combining many samples. It might suggest that ego depletion
that might distract, compete, or disturb. causes a slight increase in negative affect. However, that is
In modern life, one important category of performance involves questionable, because of what use would a signal be that normally
taking tests. Students know that it is important to do well on tests cannot be noticed? More likely, the negative affect arises because
and that poor performance can cause many setbacks and pro- some procedures for inducing ego depletion are mildly unpleasant.
blems, from disappointing one's family to failing to achieve career Or, as with fatigue, it may be that many people (even just some
goals. Unfortunately, the recognition of the importance of per- people) often suppress negative feelings, and these feelings are
forming well and the motivation to do well on tests causes many slightly more likely to register when willpower is depleted. Hence
students to struggle with fears and worries while taking tests. This it seems possible but doubtful that intentional inhibition per se
so-called test anxiety distracts the mind and impairs the ability to causes negative affect.
concentrate on the test so as to perform effectively. A series of studies by Vohs et al. (2014/submitted for
Thus, for students who suffer from test anxiety, successful publication) came to a quite different conclusion about the
performance may well depend on the ability to inhibit the subjective marker of depletion. Instead of creating some specic
distracting worries and other thoughts and feelings that interfere feeling, depletion intensies all manner of feelings. Their studies
with an optimal test focus. Test anxiety can thus offer an conrmed this. A broad assortment of positive and negative
opportunity to study the effects of ego depletion and the capacity feelings was reported more strongly among depleted than non-
to inhibit. depleted persons, in response to the same stimuli. Likewise,
The role of ego depletion in test anxiety was studied by motivations and desires were reported more strongly by depleted
Bertrams, Englert, Dickhuser, and Baumeister (2013). They cited than non-depleted persons. Sad movies were sadder, puppies were
 R.F. Baumeister / Neuropsychologia 65 (2014) 313319 317

cuter, unfamiliar Chinese or Arabic characters elicited more they express so many feelings clearly and exuberantly, but as they
extreme esthetic judgments, cold water was more painful, desire grow up, they learn to be more restrained. A recent study by
for a second and third cookie was stronger, and so forth, to Chaplin and Norton (2014 /in press) offered children of various
depleted than to non-depleted participants. ages a choice among various activities, including exuberantly
An earlier investigation by Schmeichel, Harmon-Jones and expressive ones such as singing and dancing, and more circum-
Harmon-Jones (2010) had found that depletion increased spect ones such as drawing. The younger children favored the
approach motivations. They proposed that approach and avoid- expressive activities and enjoyed them. The older children
ance/inhibition were interrelated systems and that self-regulation eschewed such public displays for more private activities, which
was chiey about inhibition and avoidance. Hence weakening brought less enjoyment.
avoidance motivations would strengthen approach motivations. Adults mostly restrain their emotional displays, and various
The work by Vohs et al. (2014) replicated the increase in approach pressures and contingencies increase the importance of restraint.
motivations but found that avoidance manipulations also When negotiating, it is self-defeating to reveal one's wishes and
increased, rather than decreasing. (Schmeichel et al. had not feelings too much. For example, a buyer who gushes that he
measured effects on avoidance manipulations.) Thus, depletion absolutely has to have some item may end up paying more than
intensies a broad range of desires. They even revisited the someone who exudes only mild interest. Most adults must manage
experience sampling study data and found that people did in fact their money by restraining impulses to spend and buy. Many
rate their current desires stronger to the extent that they had adults must restrain their appetites for food. Many pleasures must
previously inhibited other desires that day. be limited given the dangers associated with heavy indulgence,
The conclusion that depletion intensies all manner of feelings such as alcohol, tobacco, sex (especially with multiple partners),
has multiple implications for the study of intentional inhibition. and drugs. Selsh impulses are common and natural, but morality
One implication is that the effects of depletion on disinhibited and other rules require that people inhibit these to some degree,
behavior may have two causes, not just one. Not only are the especially insofar as selshness is itself often regarded as an
restraints weakened, but the impulses are strengthened. The undesirable, antisocial trait.
enhanced impulses felt during the depleted state would be extra Altogether, then the accumulated evidence points toward the
difcult to inhibit, even if one's inhibitory resources and powers conclusion that modern human adults chronically inhibit a broad
were at full strength. range of responses. Some of this inhibition is automatic and
A second implication invokes the task of explaining the possibly unconscious, while the rest of it may involve explicit
intensication of feelings. The next section will discuss the idea intention and conscious effort. Either way, frequent inhibition of
of chronic inhibition and the question of why exactly inhibiting a one's desires and impulses may be part of the price one pays to be
response is depleting. a member of society, and cultures everywhere enforce the impor-
tance of inhibiting one's impulses so as to obeys the rules that
enable the cultural system to function.
7. Intentional inhibition, and other kinds What depletes? The program of research summarized here has
been guided by the widely accepted view that controlled processes
The focus of this special issue is on intentional inhibition. That involve effort whereas automatic ones are effortless (e.g., Bargh,
raises the question of how intentional inhibition differs from other, 1994). On that basis, one would expect that the more automatic
unintended sorts of inhibition. Indeed, what is the alternative to and unconscious forms of inhibition would not consume energy
intentional inhibition? and would therefore not cause depletion. There is, however,
Unintended inhibition can be thought of in two ways. If we a dearth of relevant evidence. To be sure, there has been extensive
associate intentionality with conscious, deliberate effort, then its research on automaticity. However, most work has focused on the
alternative would presumably be automatic, unconscious inhibi- relatively straightforward pathway from an unconicted auto-
tion. Or, if we associate intentional inhibition with specic situa- matic impulse (such as might be activated by a cue) to behavior
tions and recognized challenges, then its opposite could be or other response. It does seem likely that the automatic activation
chronic, general inhibition. Perhaps modern civilized adults rou- of behavior by a subtle, implicit, or unconscious cue does not
tinely dampen most of their emotional and motivational require energy. It is nonetheless plausible, however, that an
responses. These are not wildly different: Most likely, chronic unconscious or automatic act of inhibition would require energy.
inhibition would overlap substantially with the automatic, uncon- Overriding a prepotent response could be a difcult operation that
scious sort. Still, the experience sampling research by Hofmann, requires energy.
Vohs, et al. (2012) found that people report resisting desires quite There is not much relevant evidence. One study has examined
frequently, indeed probably for a total of several hours every day. whether people are depleted after automatic inhibition. Pu, Schmei-
Such frequent and routine resistance would qualify as chronic chel, and Demaree (2010) showed that spontaneous, automatic
inhibition, but it was undoubtedly conscious as indicated by the suppression of emotional responses caused decits in working
very fact that people were able to report on it. (Reportability is one memory, which is closely linked to self-regulation (e.g., Schmeichel,
common methodological sign that something is conscious.) Any 2007). They concluded that any automatic overriding of a response is
unconscious inhibition would be in addition to that already indeed depleting. Clearly, more research is needed, but for now that
frequent and extensive inhibition, thus further underscoring the seems the best guess based on available evidence. (The evidence also
argument (made earlier in this manuscript) that inhibition is a includes the ndings by Vohs et al. (2014), that a broad range of
pervasive part of enabling human beings to live together in responses is intensied during the depleted state.)
civilized society. The implication is that intentional inhibition depletes energy
The ndings by Vohs et al. (2014/submitted for publication), not because it requires conscious effort but rather because of the
indicating that a broad range of emotions and motivations are existence of a prepotent response that must be suppressed. Put
increased by depletion, are consistent with the notion of chronic another way, inhibiting a prepotent response is inherently deplet-
inhibition. That is, people may normally learn to keep their urges ing. When people are depleted, both conscious and unconscious or
and feelings in check. Indeed, the socialization process may automatic inhibition will be impaired.
involve instilling the chronic restraint that is the hallmark of To be sure, it is possible that consciously effortful inhibition is
decorum expected of adults. Part of the charm of children is that more depleting than automatic depletion. Automaticity may still
318 R.F. Baumeister / Neuropsychologia 65 (2014) 313319

conserve energy. Nonetheless, inhibiting may be inherently core assumption (that too much self-regulation can have negative
depleting, if it always or generally requires energy to stie a effects) has been repeatedly discredited by previous work and
prepotent impulse or feeling. Further research is needed, but that continues to lack any evidence. Only about half a dozens studies
is the best guess based on current knowledge. have tested their core prediction that ego depletion reduces task
When the resources are low, even for reasons unrelated to self- motivation, and these have consistently found null results.
regulation and decision-making, a broad variety of feelings and Baumeister and Vohs (2014) conclude that some motivational
impulses may come to the fore. For example, the immune system and attentional shifts are still likely plausible as part of the ego
consumes a substantial amount of energy when it is highly active, depletion process, but their theory is woefully inadequate to
though at other times its needs may be slight. As a result, a person replace the notion of resource depletion.
whose system is ghting an incipient illness may feel things more A radical attack by Job et al. (2010) contended that ego
intensely and may act in impulsive or emotional ways that the depletion is all in your head, which is to say a matter of false
person would normally resist. belief in limited willpower. They showed that encouraging parti-
As a revealing instance, a literature review by Gailliot, cipants to believe in unlimited willpower enabled them to perform
Hildebrandt, Eckel, and Baumeister (2010) linked premenstrual well despite mild ego depletion. However, their ndings t the
syndrome (PMS) to a reduction in general inhibition. During the view that one can allocate more energy when mildly depleted if
luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, the female body uses more one believes the energy to be unlimited. Vohs, Baumeister, and
glucose than usual for its reproductive activities. Many women do Schmeichel (2013) replicated their ndings with mild depletion
eat a little more during this phase, but the increase in caloric but showed signicant reversals with severe depletion (i.e.,
intake is typically less than the amount the reproductive system believing in unlimited willpower makes things worse in the long
takes, so even these women will have less glucose than usual run which presumably explains why most cultures in the world
available for other activities such as self-regulation and inhibition. have not adopted the view that willpower is unlimited.) Ainsworth
PMS is characterized not by any specic behavior but rather an et al. (2014) even showed that glucose allocations followed this
increased tendency to act on whatever impulses the woman may pattern. That is, with mild depletion, belief in unlimited willpower
normally have and restrain. For example, PMS does not typically led to an increase in blood glucose, but with severe depletion, it
make women seek out new substances to abuse but rather led to a reduction.
heighten the women's consumption of what they normally prefer. At present, then, the best summary is that the strength model
Alcohol abusers drink more alcohol, cocaine users consume more requires some updating and overhaul to incorporate new ndings,
cocaine, and the like. Alongside the increased impulsiveness is an but the core assumption of depleting a limited energy resource
increased emotionality, which does not seem to indicate that the cannot be jettisoned. Indeed it indeed remains the best way to
PMS itself generates negative affect rather, the PMS sufferer account for the myriad ndings.
reacts more strongly than usual to a broad range of emotionally
evocative behaviors.
The implication is that PMS arises because the reproductive 8. Conclusion
functions take extra glucose, thereby starving regulatory functions
of the energy they would normally have and use. The nding that Inhibiting impulses, feelings, cognitions, and perhaps other
desires and impulses are felt all the more intensely during ego responses is a pervasive human activity. Quite possibly it is one
depletion (Vohs et al. (2014)) would also t into this view and vital key to the biological success of humankind, given that
compound the difculty for the victim of PMS, whose illicit desires survival and reproduction are accomplished with the aid of
thus become stronger than usual. Both intentional and automatic cultural systems, and inhibition is necessary for the optimal
or chronic inhibition may suffer as a result of ego depletion. functioning of those systems. If humans generally were less adept
at inhibition, there would be fewer of them (despite the gain in
7.1. Controversies and alternative views impulsive sex), because culture would not have produced the
technological and other advances that facilitated and enriched
The broad empirical success and widespread applications of the human life.
strength model of self-regulation have encouraged many other Moreover, it appears that people do a great deal of inhibiting.
researchers to conduct relevant work, and some of these have Conscious restraint of desire happens often every day. There may
suggested altering or rening the original theory in some cases be plenty of unconscious inhibition too, possibly even chronic
discarding it entirely. A detailed survey of these suggestions, patterns by which civilized adults restrain all their desires and
complete with responses and theoretical revisions, has been emotions (at least public displays of them). The resulting chronic
undertaken by Baumeister and Vohs (2014/submitted for inhibition includes both consciously intentional and automatically
publication). A brief summary of the main points is outlined here. unintentional inhibiting.
An alternative model of ego depletion was furnished by Beedie A person's capacity to inhibit has both state and trait aspects.
and Lane (2012), who proposed that self-regulation depends on People with high trait self-control outperform those with low self-
allocating resources rather than diminishing them. As already control on a broad range of measures, and it seems causal (early
noted, the emphasis on allocation seems largely correct and has self-control leads to later good performance, not the other way
been incorporated into the present theory. Selective allocation is around as happened with self-esteem). Meanwhile, despite overall
however one sign that a precious resource is being depleted. consistencies across time, each person's capacity to inhibit uc-
Inzlicht and Schmeichel (2012) proposed that no resource is tuates over the course of the day, as it depletes its energy
depleted and that one can reinterpret ndings in terms of resources in responding to demands for intentional inhibition
psychology's conventional concepts of motivation and attention. and other acts of self-regulation.
In a nutshell, they argue that too much self-regulation is mala- The ability to inhibit one's responses intentionally hardly seems
daptive and that after a period of self-regulating, the person's like the sort of thing of which humankind should be exceptionally
attention shifts to gratifying desires. Ego depletion effects result proud. Yet that capacity has likely been central to its biological
from a decline in motivation to continue self-regulating. Their success, as indicated by the contrast between the burgeoning
theory has multiple problems. It fails to account for many of the human population and the steadily declining populations of most
phenomena of ego depletion, including the glucose ndings. Its other mammals. As cultural animals, humans must conform their
 R.F. Baumeister / Neuropsychologia 65 (2014) 313319 319

behaviors to system requirements, including moral and legal rules, Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. (2010). Ego depletion and the
as well as the guidelines of plans and work roles. Inhibiting strength model of self-control: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136,
495525. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019486.
feelings and desires that do not t the program is a vital part of Hofmann, W., Baumeister, R. F., Frster, G., & Vohs, K. D. (2012). Everyday
this. Inhibition is thus one meaningful key to understanding temptations: An experience sampling study of desire, conict, and self-control.
human nature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 13181335 http://dx.doi.org/10.
1037/a0026545.
Hofmann, W., Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2012). What people desire, feel
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