title: The effect of public social context on self-control: depletion for neuroticism and restoration for impression management.
abstract: The present study explores the role of personality in moderating the effect of public social context on self-control. The authors predicted that in public settings neuroticism would be associated with ego-depletion effects and individual differences in impression management (IM) would be associated with restoration effects. Three experiments supported the hypothesis. In Study 1 neuroticism was associated with impaired self-control and IM was associated with enhanced self-control following an initial phase of working on a simple task in public (vs. in private). Study 2 replicated and extended these results to other domains of self-control. Study 3 explored whether public social context can cancel out early depletion effects. In this study, depleted participants engaged in a task that required self-control either alone or in public. As expected, the public settings were associated with restored self-control resources mostly among high IM individuals. Implications for self-control, neuroticism, and IM are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. liaduziel@gmail.com
authors.forename: Liad
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Uziel
authors.forename: Roy F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Baumeister
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012928:Social Desirability; D012931:Social Environment; D055815:Young Adult