Social Psychology Commons^™

Ego Depletion: Buffering Through Touch, Victoria E. Forgea

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ego depletion theory states that self-control is tied to a limited resource and diminishes after repeated exertions; consequently, the current study sought to examine how to replenish self-control through touch. Due to the positive outcomes of touch, we expected touch to allow participants to persist longer on a geometric tracing puzzle task after becoming ego depleted. The current study implemented measures widely used in the ego depletion literature, and the experimenter implemented two brief touches to examine the effects of touch in the domain of self-control. We found that participants who received touch persisted significantly longer on the geometric tracing …