Forewarned is forearmed: Conserving self-control strength to resist social influence

Loes Janssen (1) , Bob M. Fennis (2) , Ad Th. H. Pruyn (3)

1 Tilburg University [Tilburg]
2 Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht]
3 University of Twente

Recent research has shown that resisting persuasion involves active self-regulation. Resisting an influence attempt consumes self-regulatory resources, and in a state of self-regulatory resource depletion, people become more susceptible to (unwanted) influence attempts. However, the present studies show that a forewarning of an impending influence attempt prompts depleted individuals to conserve what is left of their regulatory resources and thus promotes self-regulatory efficiency. As a result, when these individuals are subsequently confronted with a persuasive request, they comply less (Experiments 1 and 3), and generate more counterarguments (Experiment 2) than their depleted counterparts who were not forewarned and thus did not conserve their resources, and they are as able as non-depleted participants to resist persuasion.

Mots clés: self-regulation; self-control; resource depletion; social influence; forewarning of persuasion; resistance

Domaines: Psychologie et comportements

Loes Janssen, Bob M. Fennis, Ad Th. H. Pruyn. Forewarned is forearmed: Conserving self-control strength to resist social influence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2010, 46 (6), pp.911. ⟨10.1016/j.jesp.2010.06.008⟩. ⟨hal-00864367⟩