Ego depletion and decision fatigue
The claim that self-control and decision quality draw on a limited resource that runs down through the day, so that later decisions are worse. A large preregistered multi-laboratory replication did not find the effect.
Evidence grade: contested Useful but disputed; the limits below say what is contested.
Use it when
As a caution, since managers should not plan their days around a resource that may not exist. The advice that survives (decide important things when rested, and do not decide just to end a discomfort) rests on the recovery research and on experience.
Where it stops working
The original literature is large and the replication is a single one, if a strong one. The honest position is that the strong claim is unsupported.
Where the standard uses it
- CC-6Self-managementThe manager's own time, energy, boundaries, and resilience.
Sources
- Roy F. Baumeister, Ellen Bratslavsky, Mark Muraven and Dianne M. Tice. Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(5), 1252–1265, 1998. In the bibliography
- Martin S. Hagger, Nikos L. D. Chatzisarantis and 47 co-authors. A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(4), 546–573, 2016. In the bibliography
Used alongside it
- Burnout as a job condition research
- Managerial leverage practice
- Managing your own time practice
- Recovery and detachment research
- The manager's own resilience practice
Cite this model
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). Ego depletion and decision fatigue. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, TEC.ego-depletion-and-decision-fatigue). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/techniques/ego-depletion-and-decision-fatigue