title: The Influence of Agreeableness and Ego Depletion on Emotional Responding.
abstract: Agreeable individuals report more intense withdrawal-oriented negative emotions across aversive situations. Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory depletion (i.e., ego depletion) moderates the relationship between trait Agreeableness and negative emotional responding.
  
  
  
  Ego depletion was manipulated using a writing task. Emotional responding was measured with startle eye-blink responses (Study 1, N = 71) and self-reported valence, arousal, and empathic concern (Study 2, N = 256) during emotional picture viewing. Trait Agreeableness was measured using a questionnaire.
  
  
  
  In Study 1, Agreeableness predicted especially large startle responses during aversive images and especially small startles during appetitive images. After exercising self-control, the relationship between startle magnitudes and Agreeableness decreased. In Study 2, Agreeableness predicted more empathic concern for aversive images, which in turn predicted heightened self-reported negative emotions. After exercising self-control, the relationship between Agreeableness and empathic concern decreased.
  
  
  
  Agreeable individuals exhibit heightened negative emotional responding. Ego depletion reduced the link between Agreeableness and negative emotional responding in Study 1 and moderated the indirect effect of Agreeableness on negative emotional responding via empathic concern in Study 2. Empathic concern appears to be a resource-intensive process underlying heightened responding to aversive stimuli among agreeable persons.
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University.
authors.forename: Anna J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0881-9147
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Finley
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University.
authors.forename: Adrienne L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Crowell
authors.affiliation: The University of New South Wales.
authors.forename: Eddie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harmon-Jones
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University.
authors.forename: Brandon J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Schmeichel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D000068356:Self-Control; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Agreeableness; ego depletion; empathy; individual differences; self-control