Does depletion have a bright side? Self‐regulation exertion heightens creative engagement

• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Author: Cony M. Ho,Szu‐Han ( Joanna) Lin,Russell E. Johnson
• Date: 01 June 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12425

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Does depletion have a bright side?

Self-regulation exertion heightens creative

engagement

Cony M. Ho

1

| Szu-Han ( Joanna) Lin

2

| Russell E. Johnson

3

1

Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of

Business, Clemson University, Clemson,

South Carolina, USA

2

Terry College of Business, University of

Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA

3

Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan

State University, East Lansing,

Michigan, USA

Correspondence

Cony M. Ho, Wilbur O. and Ann Powers

college of business, Clemson University,

300 G Walter T. Cox Blvd., Clemson,

SC 29634, USA.

Email: conyh@clemson.edu

[Correction added on 20 December 2021,

after first online publication: 3rd Author's

first name and affiliation was updated.]

Abstract

Resource-based theories posit that exerting self-control

to regulate one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

depletes people's available self-regulatory resources,

leaving them depleted and less able to exert self-control

in subsequent activities. Although the detrimental

effects of depletion are well-established, we challenge

this prevailing view by proposing that depletion can

have unexpected beneficial effects. Across multiple

studies, our current research provides evidence that

depletion shifts consumers' attention on benefits of cre-

ativity, and in turn influences their subsequent creative

engagement. Specifically, we found that depletion

increases consumers' persistence in creative activity,

and this beneficial effect of depletion on creative

engagement is explained by their attention on benefits

of creativity. Furthermore, we explore a boundary con-

ditions of this depletion-creative engagement effect by

demonstrating that the effect could be attenuated for

individuals who are not open to new experiences.

KEYWORDS

creative engagement, creativity, depletion, ego depletion, self-

regulation

Received: 21 January 2021 Revised: 24 September 2021 Accepted: 1 November 2021

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12425

© 2021 American Council on Consumer Interests.

666 J Consum Aff. 2022;56:666–684.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca

1|INTRODUCTION

Exerting self-control is an essential and ubiquitous part of consumers' daily lives. For exam-

ple, consumers must maintain concentration on their work in the face of distractions, control

their budget while shopping, and monitor calories they are consuming while on a diet

(Baumeister et al., 1998;Vohsetal.,2007; Waslund et al., 2015). Exerting self-control, how-

ever, drains people's limited pool of resources (Baumeister et al., 1998). When this pool is dra-

ined, people feel depleted, making them more vulnerable to impulses and less likely to exert

subsequent self-control. For example, depleted individuals are less likely to regulate their

emotions (Beedie & Lane, 2012) and resist temptations (Gino et al., 2011), and they are more

likely to engage in impulsive behaviors (Barnes et al., 2015;Hofmannetal.,2008;Lin

et al., 2016; Rosen et al., 2016), and being influenced by social influence techniques (Jassen

et al., 2008).

The majority of research to date has focused on the detrimental effects of depletion (Gino

et al., 2011; Lanaj et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2016). However, it is important to consider a wider

range of consequences, including the possibility of positive ones. For example, Lisjak and

Lee (2014) found that depletion could heighten individuals' sense of vulnerability, increasing

their motivation to protect themselves, but generally research on the benefits of depletion is

rare. Understanding beneficial outcomes of depletion is extremely important because con-

sumers need to exert self-control almost every moment, and feeling cognitive depletion is a

common experience (Johnson et al., 2018). If depletion could bring some beneficial outcomes to

consumers, consumers could further utilize such beneficial outcomes and potentially choose

the correct activity to participate in while depleted.

Building on Lisjak and Lee's (2014) initial work, we identify an activity that is possibly bol-

stered by depletion, and thus could be one that consumers allocate their attention to when

depleted. Specifically, we propose that creative engagement is enhanced by depletion. When

individuals are depleted, they have few self-regulatory resources to invest in goal pursuits,

and thus they strive to find an easier and new way to achieve their goals given the remaining

resources are not enough to exploit the existing strategy. The benefit of creativity may be

salient to depleted individuals as being creative may be a way to achieve their goal. Thus,

depleted individuals are more likely to pay more attention to the benefits of being creative as

a way to break the current depleting cycle of regulation, resulting in more creative

engagement.

This research provides several contributions to the literature. First, we pivot away from the

prevailing view that cognitive depletion necessarily has detrimental effects on all behaviors.

Understanding the possible beneficial effects of depletion is important because people have lim-

ited resources, and it is inevitable that they will experience cognitive depletion from time to

time. If we understand the beneficial outcomes of depletion, depleted consumers could be

encouraged to engage in certain activities that are harmed less or even benefited by depletion.

Second, we draw on the attention allocation perspective to identify the mechanism mediating

the relationship between depletion and creative engagement. Doing so is important because it

aids our understanding of how the beneficial outcomes of depletion unfold. When individuals

are depleted, they are more sensitive to the benefits of creativity. If we clarify this mechanism,

more beneficial outcomes of depletion could potentially be investigated in the future. Finally,

the current research contributes to the literature by examining the boundary conditions of

depletion benefits. Specifically, we demonstrate that the benefits of depletion are contingent on

how open individuals are to new experiences. If the beneficial effects of depletion only exist for

HO ET AL.667