Impression management leads to spent resources : the influence of impression management on a person's self-control

In the present paper, the relationship between impression management and self-control is investigated. It was expected that individuals engaging in impression management will be depleted of their self-control resource. Moreover, due to their monitoring and controlling behavior, it was assumed that this effect would be even stronger for people high in self-monitoring. In two laboratory experiments, the motivation to manage impressions was manipulated and the subject's reduction in self-control was measured by means of the Stroop Color-Word Task. As predicted, a main effect of impression management on the level of depletion was found. Furthermore, the moderating role of self-monitoring in this relationship was demonstrated, meaning that high self-monitors were more depleted of their self-control resources than low self-monitors after engaging in an impression management task