Lock in low‑value decisions such as what to wear or eat
There’s no solid evidence for this idea. The original experiment claiming that making choices drains willpower failed in two large‑scale replications. One involved 2,000 participants, the other 3,000, with multiple labs conducting the same tests — and the effect was essentially zero. Still, it’s worth fixing these routine decisions because they save you a few minutes and a bit of mental effort; they don’t actually conserve willpower.
No cost at all. At first you’ll need to spend some time se…
Not quantifiable. Early research suggested that decision‑making and self‑control draw on a single limited reso…
No cost at all. At first you’ll need to spend some time setting the default options.
Not quantifiable. Early research suggested that decision‑making and self‑control draw on a single limited resource (self‑exhaustion). Yet two major replication attempts — one with 2,141 participants across 23 labs and another with 3,531 participants from 36 labs — produced negligible effects (effect sizes of 0.04 and 0.06 respectively, with wide confidence intervals ranging from -0.07 to 0.15). The absolute value 0.07 also appears within this range.
Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven & Tice (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.5.1252；Hagger et al. (2016). A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect. Perspectives on Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616652873；Vohs et al. (2021). A Multisite Preregistered Paradigmatic Test of the Ego-Depletion Effect. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621989733
Open source linkThis is a controversial claim. “Decision fatigue” is often presented as a proven fact in popular literature, but most attempts to replicate the original studies have failed to find the same results. We keep this entry only because it costs virtually nothing and genuinely saves time; don’t expect it to boost your judgment later in the day.