Individuals’ ego depletion and its effect on moral behavior:

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Individuals’ ego depletion and its effect on moral behavior:

The moderating role of self-esteem and self-concept clarity

Master Thesis Proposal, MSc Human Resource Management University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business

June 21, 2013 Esther Pot s2232669 Westersingel 19a 9718 CA Groningen Tel.: + 31 06 52 45 26 87 e-mail: e.pot.3.@student.rug.nl Supervisor University Dr. J. M. Jordan Second Assessor Dr. L. D. Mulder

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ABSTRACT

This investigation examined the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior, and the moderating roles of self-esteem and self-concept clarity. Participants were 105 students of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. In a laboratory experiment participants were randomly assigned to an ego depletion or a non-ego depletion task. After this task they were given the opportunity to donate to a charity or to make a self-serving choice. The results demonstrated that there was no relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior. Moderator analysis indicated that both self-esteem and self-concept clarity did not moderate this relationship. Further implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed.

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INTRODUCTION

“Do self-esteem and self-concept clarity moderate the relationship between individuals’ ego depletion and moral behavior?”

Imagine, it is Friday at the end of the day, and you are still at the office. You had a very busy working week and you feel extremely tired. You have to accomplish some remaining tasks, but you rely on your last resources. Around four ‘o’clock your colleague enters your office and asks you to donate money for an animal charity. You feel so exhausted and decide not to give money. Do people become less concerned with the well-being of others after a challenging day at the office? That is a question I seek to answer in the current investigation.

People often face the dilemma of whether or not to engage in moral behavior, a conflict between personal costs and social pressures (Jordan & Fennis, working paper). For instance, people are confronted with the motivation of helping, which is contrasted with the selfish impulse to not help. Helping can include behaviors such as volunteering time for altruistic causes to donating – that latter of which is the focus of the current investigation. Helpfulness is desired personally - as well by society. People have values that support helping and organizations often publish the names of their financial donors, apparently to show others that helping is desirable (de Wall, Baumeister, Gailliot & Maner, 2008). Though, people do not always choose to help or act morally. One explanation for this lack of helping could be ego depletion: a state in which self-control is a limited resource.

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immoral. Therefore, it is important that researchers study the distinct relationship of ego depletion with moral behavior. I also examine self-esteem and self-concept clarity as moderators of this relationship, predicting that self-esteem and self-concept clarity will reduce ego depletion’s negative influence on moral behavior.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES

Ego Depletion

Most of the time people show deliberate, conscious and controlled responses by the self. Self-control expresses itself in task persistence, resistance of temptations, overcoming impulses, regulation of emotions, and choice making (de Ridder et al., 2011). Furthermore, it is positively related to health consequences, success at school and in the workplace (Baumeister, Bratslasvky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998; Hagger, Wood, Stiff, & Chatzisarantis, 2010). Self-control is particularly valuable for managing motivational conflicts: to overcome impulses and promote helping (de Wall et al., 2008). If people are in a state of limited self-control, this state can be defined as ego depletion. In a state of ego depletion, the self does not have all the resources it normally has. As a consequence, people do not have the capacity or are not willing to act autonomously (Baumeister & Vohs, 2007). Resisting desires causes a psychic cost, and after people have exercised an action of self-control, their capacity to control oneself again becomes exhausted and, that leads to decreased performance on further acts of self-control (Baumeister et al., 1998). The assumption is that both acts require a common resource. As a consequence, performance on the second acts is impaired because that resource has been depleted during the first act (de Wall et al., 2008).

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regulate their behavior, they will show ineffective behavior towards goals and long-term outcomes will become impossible (Loewenstein, 1996). Problematic issues such as obesity, drug abuse, violent crime or inability to manage finances are, directly or indirectly, associated with failure to self-regulate.

Various theories of self-control recognize that people are vulnerable to ego depletion, and experience acts of self-control when desires and self-control compete with each other (Hofmann, Vohs, & Baumeister, 2012). When individuals are ego depleted, cognitive resources are required and taxed at the same time, and thus the executive functioning is hindered. This executive functioning may also play a role in judging moral issues (Reynolds & Ceranic, 2007). As a result, individuals in a state of ego depletion do not have the executive resources to identify moral issues, and to assess their behavior to an external moral standard (Schmeichel, Vohs & Baumeister, 2003). In addition, there is evidence that people in a state of ego depletion conserve their own resources. That is, they are less likely to share their resources or use their resources for the benefits of others. This facet of ego depletion is one that is especially relevant for its effects on moral behavior such as generosity or giving.

Moral Behavior

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material goals, they are more likely to think about and act in ways that advance their own interests, even it may become at the expense of others.

However, the consideration of people to behave morally consists of two options: the desire to reach a positive moral self-image by acting generously or maximize self-interest by retaining resources. Taking these contrary causal factors in mind, it is interesting to investigate the relationship between individuals’ ego depletion and engagement in moral behavior. I will shed a light on people’s moral behavior and I will investigate what predicts people’s engagement in moral behavior. This study tries to understand one variable in this relationship, ego depletion.

The Relationship Between Individuals’ Ego Depletion and Moral Behavior

When individuals exercise high levels of self-control, this resource is reduced, and results in a state referred to as, “ego depletion”. In this state, individuals show reduced performance at other tasks because self-regulation draws on the same self-regulatory resource: self-control. Self-regulation is particularly useful to behave in ways that are consistent with social and personal ideals. It may be necessary to employ self-regulation to overcome selfish impulses and promote moral behavior (de Wall et al., 2008). Moral behavior requires some cost to the self, such as energy, time, or money. As was found in research, helping decreases as the cost of helping increases (Graziano, Habashi, Sheese & Tobin, 2007). Once in a state of ego depletion, the person begins to conserve the remaining resources in case important demands arise (Tyler & Burns, 2009; Muraven, Shmueli & Burkley, 2006). Thus, when in a state of ego depletion, people begin to conserve the remaining resources, being less giving and less generous.

Consistent with this theory, research has found that ego depletion leads to a lesser concern with the well-being of others (Bailliet & Joireman, 2010). In addition, moral behavior requires self-regulating and this regulation process may also cause depletion of regulatory-resources, suggesting that the ego depleted may be less likely to show moral behavior. I propose that individuals in an ego-depleted state are less likely to engage in moral behavior.

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Personal Self-esteem

Personal self-esteem refers to conscious feelings of self-liking, self-worth and acceptance. Self-esteem is measured by self-reports asking participants to report how they feel about themselves (Rosenberg, 1965). High self-esteem individuals have positive, well-articulated beliefs about the self (Campbell, Trapnell, Heine, Katz, Lavallee & Lehman, 1996). Individuals with high self-esteem have greater confidence in their own beliefs of how to behave and are more inclined to choose their own strategies (Sandelands, Brocker & Glynn, 1988; Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger & Vohs, 2003).

The positive effects of persons’ self-esteem are stronger under failure conditions than under success conditions. In particular, high-esteem individuals are less vulnerable than low-esteem individuals to the effects of social demands in their environment (Campbell, 1990). Furthermore, high self-esteem strengthens individuals’ persistence in cases of failure and enables people to continue or choose for a better alternative in a certain situation (Baumeister et al., 2003). Research has demonstrated that personal self-esteem is a primary predictor of humans’ behavior in areas such as helping and goal achievement (Campbell et al., 1996; Rosenberg, Schooler, Schoenbach & Rosenberg, 1995).

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people are in an ego-depleted state (Baumeister et al., 2003). Collectively, this evidence leads to the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2: Self-esteem will moderate the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior, such that the negative effects of ego depletion on moral behavior will be reduced by high self-esteem.

Self-concept Clarity

Self-concept clarity is the degree of certainty or clarity a person has about him or herself (Campbell, 1990). Self-concept clarity is a structural aspect of self-conceptualization; it is the extent to which self-beliefs are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable over time (Campbell et al., 1996).

More specifically, in comparison to people with low self-concept clarity, individuals with high self-concept clarity have more clearly-defined concepts of who and what they are in terms of their personality attributes (Campbell, 1990). Second, high self-concept clarity individuals are more motivated to express their selves and behave consistently with the self (Howell & Shamir, 2005), because people in general desire to maintain self-consistency (Aquino, Freeman, Reed & Lim, 2009). Moreover, as Campbell (1990) states, high self-concept clarity individuals are less susceptible to social demands, because they have confidence in their own information, thus relying less on cues from the outside world on how to think and act. People who have high self-concept clarity behave more actively when facing a dilemma, and rely on the self when making a decision (Burger & Guadagno, 2003; Setterland & Niedenthal, 1993).

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time. Unlike individuals with low self-concept clarity, individuals with high self-concept clarity want to maintain their positive self-concept and comply with their internal standards, even when doing so involve investments of effort or sacrificing financial gains (Mazar et al., 2008).

These points combined suggest that high self concept clarity will blunt the effects of ego depletion on moral behavior. Therefore, I expect that individuals with high self-concept clarity will show more moral behavior than those with low self-concept clarity when ego depleted. This leads to

the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3: Ego depletion will interact with an individual’s self-concept clarity to predict engagement in moral behavior, such that the negative effects ego depletion has on moral behavior are reduced by high self-concept clarity.

METHODS

Participants

I gathered data from a laboratory experiment. Participants for this study were all students of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (N = 112). All participants voluntary participated for extra course credits or for material remuneration ( € 4,-). Participant’s age ranged from 18 to 34 years, with an average of 21.64 years old (S.D. = 2.67)1_{, and 37% of the participants were female. Most}

participants were Dutch (74.3%), following with 14.3% Chinese, 2.9% German and, 8.6% having a different nationality. Seven participants were dismissed because they did not complete all questions, leaving a total N of 105.

Design and Procedure

This study consisted of a two-condition (ego depleted/non-ego depleted) between-subjects design. Participants were randomly assigned to these two conditions. Participants in the high ego-depletion condition completed an ego ego-depletion task whereas those in the low ego-depletion condition engaged in a non-depleting task. Two individual difference variables, self-esteem and self concept-clarity, were also measured. Participants completed this study on a computer. After continuing an

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introduction and signature of consent forms, participants completed the self-esteem (Rosenberg, Schooler & Schoenbach,1989) and self-concept clarity (Campbell et al., 1996) scales. After manipulating participants’ state of ego depletion (Wegner, Schneider, Carter & White, 1987), participants were given the opportunity to engage in moral behavior. To examine participants’ depletion, a manipulation check using paper and pen was conducted. Afterward, participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation.

Measurements

All variables were measured using statements, which rated participants’ agreement or disagreement on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = “not at all” to 7 = “very much so”). The items of all scales were averaged to form one score. Because this study is interested in the individual effect of being ego depleted on moral behavior, I set the level of analysis to the individual level. Several items were reverse-coded, to ensure that both negatively-keyed and positively-keyed items were appropriately represented. A Cronbach’s Alpha test was used to measure the internal consistency between the different dimensions of the scales (Mac Kenzie, Podsakoff & Podsakoff, 2011).

Self-esteem. Participants completed a questionnaire about their self-esteem, according to Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (1965; 1989). This questionnaire contained seven items such as, “I feel that I have a number of good qualities”, “I am able to do things as well as most other people” and, “At times I think I am no good at all” (reverse coded). All the seven items used to measure self-esteem are included in Appendix A. Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was .72.

Self-concept clarity. Was mesasured by using all twelve items from Campbell et al.’s (1996) Self-concept Clarity Scale. The items included, “My beliefs about myself often conflict with one another” (reverse-coded), “In general I have a clear sense of how I am and what I am,” and, “Sometimes I feel that I am not the not really the person that I appear to be” (reverse-coded). All twelve items used to measure self-concept clarity are included in Appendix B. The Cronbach’s alpha for these items was .83.

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every animal that comes to mind during this imaginary journey. Participants that were part of the ‘high ego depletion group’ were required to not think about a white bear. If they thought about a white bear, they were instructed to suppress this thought and mark it with an ‘x’ in the questionnaire but to continue to think about other animals and situations in the zoo. Participants that were part of the ‘low ego depletion condition’ (control group), were not provided with an extra instruction about suppressing thoughts of a white bear and could think about anything.

Moral behavior. I measured moral behavior by giving the participants the opportunity to donate to a charity versus make a self-serving choice. Participants received five raffle tickets at the end of the session, which they could contribute to one of two sources. Specifically, participants decided whether to divide each raffle ticket between either themselves or a charity of their own choice. If the one for themselves was chosen, the participant would win a €50 cash prize. But if the one for the charity of their choice was chosen, €50 would be donated in their name to this charity. Thus, I measured moral behavior as the number (out of the five possible) raffle tickets the participant decided to donate to a charity.

Manipulation check. After the manipulation task, participants answered four questions to examine if they were ego depleted: “How exhausting did you find the previous task?”, “How tiresome did you find the previous task”, “How much did the previous task frustrate you?” and, “How much did the previous task strain you?”. Participants’ scores were averaged to determine a score for ego depletion (Fischer, Kastenmüller & Asal, 2012). The items are included in Appendix C. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.82, so the items were sufficiently internally consistent with each other. Suggesting that these items form a reliable representation of ego depletion.

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to people’s moral reasoning and subsequently, their moral behavior. I controlled for gender because Gilligan suggested that women view moral issues differently than men; they are more oriented toward caring for others versus caring for themselves. Consequently, women may be more likely than men to show moral behavior, particularly when this moral behavior is in the domain of generosity.

Data Analysis

The hypotheses suggested a main effect of ego depletion on moral behavior and a moderating effect of self-esteem and self-concept clarity on the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior. First, the main effect of ego depletion on moral behavior was tested. Second, the moderating roles of self-esteem and self-concept clarity on the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior were examined in independent regression models. To test the hypotheses, two regression analyses were performed by statistic software SPSS (version 20.0). In the first step, the control variables, age and gender, were standardized and entered. The second step was entering the standardized variables ego depletion, self-esteem and self-concept clarity. The third step was entering and computing the interaction effect by multiplying the standardized variable ego depletion, and the standardized variables self-esteem and self-concept clarity.

RESULTS

Manipulation Check

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1.34), than participants in the non-ego depletion condition (M = 1.75, SD = 1.36). This result implies that participants in the ego-depletion condition were significantly more ego depleted than participants in the non-ego depleted condition. Although, the mean score for the ego depleted participants (M = 2.35, SD = 1.34) was relatively low and I will discuss this implication further in my General Discussion.

Descriptive Statistics and Study Variable Intercorrelations

The descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations for all variables of interest are represented in Table 1. Table 1 represents the mean, standard deviations and intercorrelations for all individual-level variables. In contrast to my expectations, ego depletion and moral behavior were not related. However, self-esteem (r = -.31, p = .001) was negatively related to moral behavior. As can be seen, the control variable age was not related to moral behavior, whereas the control variable gender was positively related to moral behavior (r = .25, p = .01).

TABLE 1

Descriptive Statistics and Study Variable Intercorrelations

Note: N = 105. Understandardized variable intercorrelations are presented. * Correlation is significant at p < .05 (2-tailed).

** Correlation is significant at p < 0.01 (2-tailed).

2_{Gender consists of two conditions: 1 = male; 2 = female.}

3_{Ego depletion consists of two conditions -1 = non-ego depleted; 1 = ego depleted.}

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Hypothesis Testing – Self-esteem

The results of the linear regression model for ego depletion on moral behavior with self-esteem as the moderator is represented in Table 2. Hypothesis 1 stated that ego depletion is positively related to moral behavior. Ego depletion was not related to moral behavior (B = -.05, SE = .17, t = .27, p = .79). The second hypothesis proposed a moderating effect of self-esteem on the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior (B = -.06, SE = .18, t = -.36, p = .72). As a result, no support can be found for both Hypotheses 1 and 2 and they should be rejected. The control variable age was unrelated to moral behavior (B = -.01, SE = .17, t = -.04, p = .97), whereas, the control variable gender was related to moral behavior (B = .45, SE = .17, t = 2.57, p = .01).

TABLE 2

Regression Analysis Results for Self-esteem

Note: N = 105. Standardized regression coeffients are presented.

* Correlation is significant at p < .05 (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at p < 0.01 (2-tailed).

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Hypothesis Testing – Self-concept Clarity

The results of the linear regression model for ego depletion on moral behavior with self-concept clarity as the moderator is represented in Table 3. Hypothesis 1 stated that ego depletion was positively related to moral behavior. Because ego depletion was not related to moral behavior (B = .14, SE = .18, t = .76, p = .45), Hypothesis 1 is again rejected. The third hypothesis proposed the moderating effect of self-concept clarity on the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior (B = -.05, SE = .19, t = -.24, p = .81). This result is also non-significant. Thus, Hypothesis 3 must also be rejected.

TABLE 3

Regression Analysis Results for Self-concept Clarity

Note: N = 105. Standardized regression coeffients are presented

* Correlation is significant at p < .05 (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at p < 0.01 (2-tailed).

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GENERAL DISCUSSION

Summary of Results

In this study I tested the role of ego depletion on moral behavior, with the moderators self-esteem and self-concept clarity, expecting that self-self-esteem and self-concept clarity diminish the negative effect of ego depletion on moral behavior. In conclusion, the results of the analysis did not provide evidence for my hypotheses. There was no relation between ego depletion and moral behavior. Thus, I cannot confirm that ego depleted people behave less morally than those who are not ego depleted. The moderating roles of self-esteem and self-concept clarity, in the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior, were both not related. These findings are in contrast to my hypotheses, given the assumption that people high in self-esteem and self-concept clarity could reduce the role ego depletion has on moral behavior. I will elaborate on possible reasons for these outcomes, and why these outcomes differ with findings from the existing literature. In line with the existing research, I found a significant relationship between gender and moral behavior. Specifically, women were more likely than men to donate. In contrast to my expectation, I found a negative significant correlation between self-esteem and moral behavior.

Hypothesis 1

The first hypothesis predicted that ego depletion is negatively related to moral behavior. The data did not support this hypothesis. I will provide some potential explanations for this null relationship. Participants were to some extent exhausted and might not have felt the urgency to conserve their resources. As Vohs et al. (2012) stated when ego depletion is marginal, there is room for subjective beliefs and motivations that moderate the effects of ego depletion on performance . This finding could mean that individuals’ beliefs and motivations played a role in their consideration to behave moral when ego depleted.

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the near future. That was not the case in this experiment; the manipulation task took place at the end of the session.

Moreover, people who are slightly ego depleted need a strong motivation to conserve their resources because they are less susceptible to future demands than are more depleted individuals (Muraven, Pogarsky &, Shmueli, 2006). So, if I had conducted a resource consuming task after the initial ego depletion task, participants may have perceived future demands and conserved strengths.

Further, in the last part of the experiment participants were given the opportunity to donate. Participants had the chance of winning € 50 for own purposes or to donate € 50 to a charity. This amount may have been too high for people to donate. Possibly, if the money prize was lower, moral behavior may have been increased, and I would have found a different result.

Hypothesis 2

The second hypothesis stated that self-esteem moderates the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior, such that the negative effects of ego depletion on moral behavior will be reduced by high self-esteem. This hypothesis was not supported.

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Hypothesis 3

The third hypothesis proposed the moderating effect of self-concept clarity on the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior, such that high self-concept clarity reduces the negative effects of ego depletion on moral behavior. This hypothesis was not confirmed.

A possible explanation could be that high self-concept clarity only affects this relationship if individuals with high self-concept clarity could repeat a moral action (Burger & Guadagno, 2003). For instance, if a person complies with an initial request to donate, high self-concept clarity individuals will see themselves as “the kind of person who donates.” This consideration would then become part of their self-concept. So, if a person was requested to donate money a second time, high concept clarity people would comply with this request to be consistent with their self-concept. In conclusion, if participants were given the opportunity to donate two times during the experiment, I might have found a different result.

Theoretical and Practical Implications

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Organizations may benefit from the practical implications this study provides. The purpose of this study was to find out how ego depletion affects engagement in moral behavior. Results of this study show that ego depletion does not have an effect on individuals’ moral behavior. Being exhausted at the workplace does not influence someone’s moral behavior. Organizations and managers do not have to be aware when their employees are likely to be ego depleted. For instance, managers do not have to pay attention whether employees are well rested or not and can schedule tasks at moments that suits them best. Furthermore, the importance of self-esteem and self-concept clarity (Schmitt & Allik, 1994; Campbell et al., 1996) seems not influence the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior. Organizations do not have to encourage employees’ self-esteem and self-concept clarity because it does not have an effect.

Although, moral behavior plays an important role on the functioning of organizations and has important implications for organizations (Huberts, Kaptein & Lasthuizen, 2007). Without question, a greater understanding of which factors influence individuals’ ego depletion, and moral behavior is needed to make practical contributions.

Limitations and Future Directions

There are several limitations of the present study, which should be taken into account. First, this study was conducted in a laboratory setting, this means that participants’ behavior was probably not the same as in real life. After the manipulation test, the participants were slightly ego depleted. For future research, I would use a stronger manipulation measurement, and conduct a scenario that participants have to accomplish more tasks in the near future. In this way, participants probably will face the urgency to conserve their resources.

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Another limitation is that I did not include the effect of participants’ preference for donation. Although, participants were free in their decision to choose a certain charity, individuals differ from each other in their interests for donation. Related to this study, the degree to which participants have strong donation preferences appear, when moral behavior was tested. An improvement for future research might be to conduct a moderator that test preference for donation or attitudes for donation or for instance social pressure.

The final limitation is the generalizability of the results presented. Data was gathered from university students with the same demographic characteristics like age and education level. Therefore, my data is probably too narrow and is not representative for an entire population. On the other hand, the sample included approximately 25% foreign participants, which increases the ethnic diversity of a relatively small sample size, and cultural differences might have affected moral outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

The current investigation sheds light on a fundamental aspect to life, moral behavior. Donation is part of everyday life, like the anecdote presented in the introduction. How would you respond to your peer if you were asked to donate money at the end of a long working day? Therefore, I conducted a research that examined the relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior, with moderating roles for self-esteem and self-concept clarity. I found no relationship between ego depletion and moral behavior. It seems clear that much more research is needed to investigate the relationship between ego depletion and engagement in moral behavior. The results of this investigation show that better measurements should be developed to manipulate individuals’ ego depletion. According to Mark Twain (1876):

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APPENDIX A

Self-esteem Scale

1. I take a positive attitude toward myself.

2. I feel that I'm a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others. 3. I feel that I have a number of good qualities.

4. I am able to do things as well as most other people. 5. At times I think I am no good at all.*

6. I feel I do not have much to be proud of.*

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APPENDIX B

Self-concept Clarity Scale

1. My beliefs about myself often conflict with one another.*

2. On one day I might have one opinion of myself and on another day I might have a different opinion.*

3. I spend a lot of time wondering about what kind of person I really am.* 4. Sometimes I feel that I am not really the person that I appear to be.*

5. When I think about the kind of person I have been in the past, I'm not sure what I was really like.*

6. I seldom experience conflict between the different aspects of my personality. 7. Sometimes I think I know other people better than I know myself.*

8. My beliefs about myself seem to change very frequently.*

9. If I were asked to describe my personality, my description might end up being different from one day to another day.*

10. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I would tell someone what I am really like.* 11. In general, I have a clear sense of who I am and what I am.

12. It is often hard for me to make up my mind about things because I don't really know what I want.*

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APPENDIX C

Manipulation Check Scale

1. How exhausting did you find the previous task?

2. How much did the previous task frustrate you?

Individuals’ ego depletion and its effect on moral behavior: