title: Weakening self-control biases the emotional evaluation of appetitive cues.
abstract: Exerting self-control in a first task weakens self-control in a second completely unrelated task (ego-depletion). It has been proposed that ego-depletion increases approach motivation which would amplify positive emotions to appetitive cues. Here we investigated the effect of the depletion of cognitive self-control on the subsequent emotional evaluation of appetitive cues. Participants of the depletion group copied a text omitting frequent letters and thereby exerting self-control to inhibit automated writing habits. Participants of the control group just copied the text. In a subsequent task participants had to rate valence and arousal of their responses to neutral vs. positive pictures of humans, animals, food, or sceneries. Ego-depletion caused more positive valence ratings of neutral pictures and lower arousal ratings of positive pictures. The findings do not support the notion that ego-depletion increases approach motivation in general. Rather they suggest that-without a specific motivational context-depletion of cognitive self-control differentially alters the immediate emotional evaluation of appetitive cues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Center for Integrative Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian Dirk
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1287-4955
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Wiesner
authors.affiliation: Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) and Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lindner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D015982:Bias; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000068356:Self-Control