Fig. 1.

Study Procedure and Behavioral Outcomes. (a) Participants performed two tasks. The first task consisted of either a thought suppression task (self-control depletion condition) or an analogous control task not requiring self-control (control condition). All participants performed the same Stroop task as the second task. Before the Stroop task, half of the participants were motivated to perform well by monetary incentives (high-motivation condition), whereas the other half was not (regular motivation condition). This resulted in a 2 (self-control: depletion vs. control) × 2 (motivation: regular vs high) between-subjects factorial design. (b) Within the regular motivation condition, the typical effect after self-control exertion occurred such that participants who had exerted self-control in the initial task performed worse in the subsequent Stroop task. High motivation resulted in a significant reduction in Stroop interference scores for participants in the depletion condition, enabling them to perform as well as control participants. Within the high motivation condition, self-control depletion had no significant effect on Stroop performance. Higher Stroop interference scores point to poorer self-control. Error bars indicate ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.