We investigated a potential outcome of ego depletion manipulations and an important factor behind cooperative failure: a lack of openness to others' dissenting opinions. Across five studies in a variety of task settings, we examined the effect of depletion manipulations on openness to dissent and investigated two negative emotions as potential mediators of this process: fatigue and anger. The results demonstrated a negative effect of depletion manipulations on openness to dissent through increased anger rather than fatigue (Studies 1-5). In Studies 3 and 4, we also eliminated perceived trust towards a task counterpart as a significant mediator of the relationship between depletion manipulations and openness to dissent. These findings help clarify the nature of ego depletion manipulations and shed light on why individuals may fail to consider others' dissenting opinions and, thus, fall short of achieving cooperation.
Keywords: anger; depletion manipulations; fatigue; openness to dissent; trust.
© 2019 The British Psychological Society.