There is an active debate regarding whether the ego depletion effect is real. A recent preregistered experiment with the Stroop task as the depleting task and the antisaccade task as the outcome task found a medium-level effect size. In the current research, we conducted a preregistered multilab replication of that experiment. Data from 12 labs across the globe ( N = 1,775) revealed a small and significant ego depletion effect, d = 0.10. After excluding participants who might have responded randomly during the outcome task, the effect size increased to d = 0.16. By adding an informative, unbiased data point to the literature, our findings contribute to clarifying the existence, size, and generality of ego depletion.

There is an active debate regarding whether the ego depletion effect is real. A recent pre-registered experiment with the Stroop task as the depleting task and the antisaccade task as the outcome task found a medium level effect size. In the current research, we pre-registered a multi-lab collaborating project to replicate that experiment. Data from twelve labs across the globe (N = 1775) revealed a small but significant ego depletion effect, g = 0.12, CI95 = [0.02, 0.21]. The data also provided some evidence in support of a moderating effect of individual differences in lay theory about willpower, such that participants with an unlimited-resource theory evinced a weaker depletion effect. Finally, a series of auxiliary analyses provided important implications for future studies investigating the robustness of ego depletion, such that strictly controlled experimental settings and outcome tasks with medium difficulty might be better for observing a stronger depletion effect.