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This version was published on September 1, 2007
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 9, 1306-1321 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167207303025
© 2007 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Ego Depletion and Positive Illusions: Does the Construction of Positivity Require Regulatory Resources?

Peter Fischer

Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, pfischer{at}psy.uni-muenchen.de

Tobias Greitemeyer

Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich

Dieter Frey

Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich

Individuals frequently exhibit positive illusions about their own abilities, their possibilities to control their environment, and future expectations. The authors propose that positive illusions require resources of self-control, which is considered to be a limited resource similar to energy or strength. Five studies revealed that people with depleted self-regulatory resources indeed exhibited a less-optimistic sense of their own abilities (Study 1), a lower sense of subjective control (Study 2), and less-optimistic expectations about their future (Study 3). Two further studies shed light on the underlying psychological process: Ego-depleted (compared to nondepleted) individuals generated/retrieved less positive self-relevant attributes (Studies 4 and 5) and reported a lower sense of general self-efficacy (Study 5), which both partially mediated the impact of ego depletion on positive self-views (Study 5).

Key Words: positive illusions • ego depletion • regulatory resources • self-efficacy • self-regulation


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