The Ego Depletion State: A Limited Resource or a Mechanism of Motivation?

The present experiment looked at the effects of two different forms of motivation (extrinsic/intrinsic) on a phenomenon known as ego depletion. The study employed 40 participants who were placed in either a high ego depletion condition or a low ego depletion condition. Participants in each of these conditions were then further divided by being placed either in an extrinsic or an intrinsic motivation condition. The results of the experiment revealed a significant main effect of ego depletion but one that was opposite to the hypothesized direction. Participants in the high ego depletion condition spent significantly more time and completed significantly more anagrams than participants in the low ego depletion condition. There was no main effect of motivation, nor a motivation by ego depletion interaction. The limitations, implications of the current research and future research directions are discussed