Curr Psychol (2010) 29:235–246 241 test that it is the act of actively responding to the initial questions that drains the self of these resources. Typically, to assess its impact, the CQP is contrasted with a control condition where the initial request stage (i.e., the initial set of probing questions) is omitted (Burger 1999). However, in the present context this could inadvertedly introduce a design confound, because the number of times the target is required to respond and the interaction duration may then covary with the cognitive effort involved in responding. Hence, in the present study, we kept the basic structure of the CQP constant across conditions and only manipulated the extent to which answering the initial questions would drain self-regulatory resources. In addition, as a confound check we also measured our participants’ mood. Conditions After a general introduction of the student action group and its objectives, participants were randomly assigned to the demanding or undemanding initial request of the CQP procedure. In all conditions, the participant was presented with an initial request asking them to rate their agreement with a series of four statements on academic education. These statements argued for an increase in the number of weekly hours that students should have class, the requirement for students to pay back government funded loans and a fine in case of failing to meet the graduation criteria in four years, a proposal to cut down the number of fixed computers on campus and instead offering students the possibility of buying a personal laptop at reduced rate, and the proposal to increase the basic student grant awarded by the government to meet students’ financial demands. Participants in the demanding initial request condition were then asked to generate three arguments opposing their position on each of the statements. For example, when participants indicated to agree with the statement to raise the number of weekly hours devoted to classes, they were asked to come up with three reasons why they should disagree with the statement (and vice versa). Hence, all participants in this condition were asked to actively override their primary evaluative response to the statement, an act requiring active self-regulation (Wheeler et al. 2007). In contrast, participants in the undemanding initial request condition were simply asked to generate three arguments supporting their position on each of the statements. There was no time limit for answering. A MANOVA showed that the time required to answer each of the four statements was not influenced by type of influence technique (F< 1). Dependent Variables Self-regulatory Resource Depletion We used the Stroop-task to assess self- regulatory resource depletion (Stroop 1935; Vohs et al. 2005; Wallace and Baumeister 2002). In the Stroop task, participants are exposed to color words that are depicted in either a corresponding or a deviating font color and they are asked to report the font color. Earlier research on self-control has found that the Stroop task taxes self-regulatory resources (Gailliot et al. 2007; Muraven et al. 2006; Webb and Sheeran 2003; Wallace and Baumeister 2002). Hence, for participants already low in