Liberating Effects of Losing Executive Control When Regulatory Strategies Turn Maladaptive

Across numerous domains, research has consistently linked decreased capacity for executive control to negative outcomes. Under some conditions, however, this deficit may translate into gains: When individuals’ regulatory strategies are maladaptive, depletion of the resource fueling such strategies may facilitate positive outcomes, both intraand interpersonally. We tested this prediction in the context of contentious intergroup interaction, a domain characterized by regulatory practices of questionable utility. White participants discussed approaches to campus diversity with a White or Black partner immediately after performing a depleting or control computer task. In intergroup encounters, depleted participants enjoyed the interaction more, exhibited less inhibited behavior, and seemed less prejudiced to Black observers than did control participants—converging evidence of beneficial effects. Although executive capacity typically sustains optimal functioning, these results indicate that, in some cases, it also can obstruct positive outcomes, not to mention the potential for open dialogue regarding divisive social issues. The human capacity to regulate responses for goal-directed action has been studied in domains from language and spatial ability to addiction and consumer behavior (e.g., Bialystok, 2001; Miyake, Friedman, Rettinger, Shah, & Hegarty, 2001; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000; Vohs & Faber, 2007). Despite the breadth of this literature, a unifying conclusion has emerged: the consequences of decreased capacity to exert executive control are negative. Here we consider a context in which a depleted state may actually offer intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits. Specifically, we propose that individuals who have been stripped of their usual capacity for executive control and placed in contentious social interaction can have more enjoyable experiences, exhibit less inhibited behavior, and make a more positive impression on interaction partners than those who have not. EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AND REGULATORY STRATEGIES Executive control is typically presumed to facilitate optimal functioning by fueling those actions necessary to override or otherwise change maladaptive tendencies (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994). Consider, for instance, an individual seeking to lose weight by curbing fast-food consumption. An individual may enlist various strategies: packing healthy lunches, avoiding tempting routes of travel, skipping meals, suppressing thoughts of junk food altogether. The ability to adhere to these strategies is often contingent on available executive capacity—a limited resource, exhaustible by previous actions (Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000). But what if one’s intuitions about how to achieve a goal are flawed from the outset? Notably, research indicates that skipping meals often predicts weight gain, not loss (Stroebe, 2008), and efforts to avoid thinking about certain foods likely result in more, not fewer, unwanted thoughts (Wegner, 1994). In such cases, when individuals are mistaken regarding the utility of their regulatory strategies, reduced capacity to employ such efforts may actually facilitate positive outcomes. The implications of such misjudgment are doubly important for interpersonal domains, as maladaptive regulatory practices may not only detract from one’s subjective experiences, but also create negative impressions among interaction partners. Historically, executive function has been studied as an intrapersonal phenomenon, but recent efforts have considered its role in dynamic interpersonal processes (e.g., Finkel et al., 2006; Richeson & Shelton, 2003; Richeson & Trawalter, 2005; Vohs, Baumeister, & Ciarocco, 2005; von Hippel & Gonsalkorale, Address correspondence to Evan P. Apfelbaum, Department of Psychology, Tufts University, 490 Boston Ave., Medford, MA 02155, e-mail: evan.apfelbaum@tufts.edu. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Volume ]]]—Number ]] 1 Copyright r 2009 Association for Psychological Science 2005). Deficits in executive functioning have been found to predict impaired self-presentation (Vohs et al., 2005) and increases in inappropriate (von Hippel & Gonsalkorale, 2005) or stereotypical (Govorun & Payne, 2006) responses. Thus, it is apparent that decreased executive capacity impedes the practice of regulatory behavior, but we propose that it does not necessarily ensure negative consequences. Indeed, when individuals tend toward maladaptive regulatory strategies, this depletion may facilitate positive intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes. One social domain with clear potential for such effects is intergroup interaction (Apfelbaum, Sommers, & Norton, 2008). Negotiating intergroup interaction is often a threatening experience (Dovidio, Gaertner, Kawakami, & Hodson, 2002) that can turn contentious when involving discussion of race-related issues (Sommers, 2006). These interactions are frequently characterized by efforts to stifle responses that risk social reprimand (Crandall & Eshleman, 2003; Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004)—a regulatory strategy that can persist even when ineffective. For instance, Whites’ efforts to avoid mentioning race during intergroup interaction sometimes emerge at the expense of objective task performance and, ironically, the impression made on Black interaction partners (Apfelbaum et al., 2008; Norton, Sommers, Apfelbaum, Pura, & Ariely, 2006). Navigating such interactions with depleted executive capacity may therefore liberate individuals from a misguided regulatory tendency, resulting in more enjoyable experiences for them and more positive assessments from interaction partners. In short, whereas previous work has focused on the pitfalls of diminished executive capacity, we suggest that, when individuals misintuit how best to self-regulate, reduced cognitive control may facilitate favorable consequences. Our test of this hypothesis focused on two outcomes. First, we investigated intrapersonal effects of depleted executive capacity, namely whether inducing this state in Whites facilitates greater enjoyment of intergroup interaction. Second, we explored a potential interpersonal benefit of depleted executive capacity by considering the possibility that in interracial settings, Whites are perceived as less racially prejudiced when depleted.