The Research That Launched a Thousand Airport Books Got a Reality Check. What Holds Up?
Social psychology gave us trendy takeaways like power poses and “ego depletion.” Then the replication crisis hit, killing many findings but leaving the field stronger.
Illustration: Oyow for Bloomberg
In 2014, then-US President Barack Obama made an unusual sartorial choice: He wore a tan suit to a press conference where he discussed a possible increase in military action against the militant group ISIS. Obama’s critics went into overdrive, but it did seem an odd decision for a man known for his wardrobe discipline. Just two years earlier, Obama had explained to writer Michael Lewis that he wears “only gray or blue suits,” because “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing.” Obama cited research that “shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions.”
The most powerful man in the world was talking about a concept from social psychology known as “ego depletion” — the idea that decision-making is a fuel tank that gets emptied as we use it. In its original form, the theory has repeatedly failed to replicate. It’s not that decision-making can’t be tiring, but that it’s not a finite resource best conserved. Go ahead and pick your suit in the morning, is what I’m saying.