ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R

Advances in Psychological Science

   

Ego Depletion Impedes Rational Decision Making: Mechanisms and Boundary Conditions

  

  • Received:2020-04-06 Revised:2020-07-29 Online:2020-08-03 Published:2020-08-03
  • Contact: Aimei

Abstract: Ego depletion leads to preference for immediate interests and goals, and is likely to induce more irrational decision making. Based on systematic induction, ego depletion impedes rational decision making through two mechanisms. In regard to attention mechanism, depleted individuals are more likely to be attracted by immediate rewards and ignore the importance of long-term benefit (i.e., failure of “focusing on the future”). In terms of execution mechanism, depletion impairs individuals’ abilities of planning and executing (i.e., failure of “sticking to the future”). Then, two aspects of critical boundaries affect these processes: (1) individual characteristics, including susceptibility to resource depletion and internal moral restraint; (2) situational characteristics, including external provocation, social norms and decision costs. Future research would explore the attention mechanism by eye-tracking technology and the boundary conditions as well as methods of nudging rational decision making.

Key words: ego depletion, decision making, rationality, attention mechanism, execution mechanism, long-term benefit