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EGO DEPLETION AND THE
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
SELF REGULATORY FATIGUE
IN PUBLIC GOODS GAMES
David Crelley
Prof. Stephen Lea
Dr. Peter Fischer
University of Exeter, UK
[email protected]
What is Ethical Consumption and
Investment?
 Typically defined: Fair trade, locally sourced,
recycled goods, free range, organic…
 My definition: Favouring products that are for
the greater good
 Most consumers do not consistently buy
ethical branded products (Altman, 2001,
Thøgersen, 2006)
 Economic incentives often outweigh moral
motives (Fransson & Gärling, 1999, De
Pelsmacker et al., 2005)
Spending Conflict
 Ethical spending can be considered a ‘Social
Dilemma’ with two components:
1. Social conflict: Motivationally demanding
2. Temporal conflict: Cognitively demanding
 Hardin (1968) Tragedy of the commons
 Some people will only act in accordance
with self interest (free ride)
 Why continue to act morally when others do
not?
 Can we indefinitely resist temptation?
Self Regulation and Ego Depletion
 Self regulation constrains undesirable urges (Alberts




et al., 2007)
Ensure behaviour is inline with our long term goals
Decision making, self-presentation, and intellectual
performance (Alberts et al., 2007; Baumeister &
Vohs, 2007)
Via regulating
 Thoughts (taking others perspective / Long term
impact)
 Emotions (warm fuzzy feeling vs guilt)
Self restraint is a limited cognitive resource
(Baumeister et al., 1998)
Self Regulation and Ego Depletion
 Self-regulation is impaired by prior selfregulation
 Ego depletion results in self serving attitudes
(Hofmann et al., 2007)
 Ego depletion should lead to self serving and
short term economic decisions
 No study has previously investigated ego
depletion at the group level
Current Study
 Ego depletion and a social dilemma game.
 40 u/g students
 2 conditions (high vs. low ego depletion)
 Ego depletion manipulation : the white bear
manipulation (Baumeister et al. 1998; Muraven, Tice,
and Baumeister 1998).
 Sheldon and McGregor (2000) forest game
 4 players per game 200 hectare forest. Cut down
10 hectares' per player per round
 Forest regenerates up to 10%
Forest Left Round by Round
Forest Left Round by Round
Results
 Tree Years
 Low Ego Depletion M 2170.67
 High Ego Depletion M 1197.99
 t(9) 2.661, P =0.012
 PANAS
 Ego depletion resulted in negative emotion
 But no mediation effect
 Informal exit interviews
 High ego depletion condition = distrustful
 Low ego depletion condition = notions of
fairness
Conclusion
 First study to show
 Group based effect of ego depletion
 An effect of self regulation fatigue public
goods games
 Next stages
 Real life spending
 Fatigue effects in prolonged shopping
 Thank you for listening
 [email protected]