Informative Speaking Lauren Sledge Groves—3rd Place — Transcript

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1. 0:01in 1998 social psychologist Dr Roy BME
2. 0:05forever changed the way we think of
3. 0:08human potential he theorized willpower
4. 0:12is a limited resource we spend it each
5. 0:15time we exert self-control or make a
6. 0:17decision the idea called ego depletion
7. 0:22inspired popular advice like make tough
8. 0:24decisions in the morning tackle
9. 0:27difficult tasks first and take a cheat
10. 0:29day during your diet for millions of
11. 0:31Americans ego depletion influenced daily
12. 0:34decision making one catch
13. 0:37though it probably isn't
14. 0:41real last April a multinational study
15. 0:44published in perspectives on
16. 0:45psychological science backed by Dr bow
17. 0:48Meister found no evidence to support the
18. 0:51existence of ego depletion this result
19. 0:54according to monitor on psychology in
20. 0:56June of 2016 is only the first in a
21. 1:00larger replication crisis haunting
22. 1:03psychology dozens of confirmed
23. 1:06psychological theories have failed
24. 1:08strenuous replication efforts theories
25. 1:11like ego depletion many of us have
26. 1:15internalized as truth social psychology
27. 1:18provides powerful explanations of human
28. 1:20nature we use to manage our health and
29. 1:24run Fortune 500 companies but these
30. 1:27truths are now uncertain
31. 1:31grasping a concept as encompassing as
32. 1:33psychology's replication crisis requires
33. 1:36a focal point so we will hone our
34. 1:39exploration through the lens of one of
35. 1:41its first casualties ego
36. 1:44depletion let's begin with a discussion
37. 1:46of this theories rise and fall next its
38. 1:49role in the larger crisis and finally
39. 1:52implications that leave psychologist Dr
40. 1:54Michael enlit
41. 1:56wondering what do we teach our students
42. 2:01Fitness Guru Tim Ferris used ego
43. 2:04depletion to underscore much of the
44. 2:05advice in the 4-Hour Body his New York
45. 2:09Times bestselling book it's why he eats
46. 2:12the same breakfast every morning one
47. 2:14less decision to make let's explore how
48. 2:18ego depletion permeated our culture and
49. 2:21faced its first
50. 2:22challenge first ego depletions intuitive
51. 2:25nature allowed it to catch on quick
52. 2:28slate of March 6 2016 explains Labs from
53. 2:31all over the world publish scores of
54. 2:32studies using similar procedures
55. 2:35seemingly anything could sap our
56. 2:38willpower resisting cookies watching a
57. 2:41sad movie without reacting in 2003 a
58. 2:45group of scientists concluded that white
59. 2:46people lose willpower when discussing
60. 2:49racial politics with black scientists
61. 2:52once depleted participants found it
62. 2:54difficult if not impossible to make good
63. 2:57decisions in 2010 a group of researchers
64. 3:00compiled data from 83 different studies
65. 3:03and 198 separate experiments this meta
66. 3:07analysis established ego depletion as a
67. 3:10reliable
68. 3:12phenomenon next in his 2011 self-help
69. 3:15book willpower Roy B Meister explained
70. 3:18that Eco depletion could be reversed by
71. 3:21the glucose and sweeten
72. 3:23lemonade it was this assertion that
73. 3:25caught the eye of then graduate student
74. 3:26Evan Carter who thought that's not
75. 3:29biologically
76. 3:30possible prompting an investigation of
77. 3:33the 2010 meta analysis it didn't go well
78. 3:37according to Frontiers in Psychology in
79. 3:39June of 2013 for starters The Meta
80. 3:41analysis only included published studies
81. 3:44which seems reasonable until you
82. 3:47consider that any study reporting a null
83. 3:49or negative effect would likely never
84. 3:51see the light of day journals typically
85. 3:54don't publish studies entitled nothing
86. 3:56to see
87. 3:57here meaning The Meta analysis began
88. 4:01with a positive bias further
89. 4:03complicating results were contradictory
90. 4:05measures employed by different studies
91. 4:07for instance one study found depleted
92. 4:10subjects give more money to charity
93. 4:13while another found depleted subjects
94. 4:15spend less time helping
95. 4:18strangers both were used to establish
96. 4:21ego depletion as
97. 4:25real as President Barack Obama famously
98. 4:29confined find his suit options to two
99. 4:31colors to reduce his daily decision
100. 4:34making ego depletions influence extends
101. 4:37beyond the White House let's explore its
102. 4:40own replication attempt and roll in the
103. 4:42larger
104. 4:44crisis first after deconstructing the
105. 4:472010 meta analysis Evan Carter embarked
106. 4:50on his own investigation he partnered
107. 4:52with the association for psychological
108. 4:54science to resolve the uncertainty
109. 4:56surrounding ego depletion as detailed in
110. 4:59Frontiers and psychology on April 29th
111. 5:012016 they partnered with Roy bow Meister
112. 5:04to perfect the methodology and design a
113. 5:07series of tests to be conducted
114. 5:09independently they even arranged for
115. 5:11labs from all over the world including
116. 5:13France Holland and Indonesia to test
117. 5:15cross-cultural compatibility after the
118. 5:18dust settled in 24 Labs with over 2100
119. 5:23participants the results were
120. 5:26devastating a Zero Effect for ego
121. 5:29depletion
122. 5:31next scenarios like this have occurred
123. 5:34over and over again according to the
124. 5:37Atlantic of March 4th 2016 last year the
125. 5:40University of Virginia launched the
126. 5:42reproducibility project they
127. 5:44painstakingly repeated 100 published
128. 5:47psychological
129. 5:48experiments 2third failed box of January
130. 5:521st 2017 describe some of the more
131. 5:55shocking to fall for instance no
132. 5:57evidence exists to suggest power posing
133. 6:01makes us feel strong or the act of
134. 6:03smiling can make us any happier also
135. 6:08recent studies of bilingualism which
136. 6:10supposedly boast a host of cognitive
137. 6:13benefits cannot demonstrate any positive
138. 6:16effect on mental capacity results like
139. 6:19these have fueled a brewing Civil War
140. 6:22amongst psychologists some dismissed the
141. 6:24contradictions as routine science others
142. 6:28like Dr Michael L only see academic
143. 6:31ground get beneath their feet he
144. 6:33explains I've been researching ego
145. 6:35depletion for a
146. 6:37decade and it may not even
147. 6:42exist despite massive doubt ego
148. 6:45depletions influence lingers in fact
149. 6:48last fall a group of scientists
150. 6:49explained that Pokemon go declined in
151. 6:52popularity because its players got
152. 6:54depleted these inconsistencies prompt
153. 6:58two implications concerning research and
154. 7:01human
155. 7:03behavior first questions surrounding ego
156. 7:06depletion indict the method used to
157. 7:09legitimize it
158. 7:11metaanalysis we routinely use this
159. 7:13process to confirm theories and social
160. 7:15sciences health and
161. 7:17communication but editor of the journal
162. 7:20plus medicine Hilda Bastian explains on
163. 7:22July 5th 2016 the 2010 meta analysis
164. 7:25demonstrates how biased even these
165. 7:28comprehensive studies can be
166. 7:30if we analyze a 100 flawed studies we'll
167. 7:34get a flawed result unfortunately as a
168. 7:37once powerful Theory depletes our gold
169. 7:41standard of evidence May rest with it
170. 7:43but psychology has responded calling for
171. 7:46larger sample sizes more data sharing
172. 7:48and pre-registered methods to prevent
173. 7:50cherry picking perhaps the replication
174. 7:53crisis won't signal psychology's
175. 7:55impending
176. 7:56demise but rather a wakeup call to
177. 8:00preserve its
178. 8:02legitimacy finally if ego depletion
179. 8:05isn't real why do we experience it
180. 8:09according to the proceedings of the
181. 8:11National Academy of Science of July 18th
182. 8:132013 its continued power may stem from
183. 8:17its
184. 8:18popularity emerging evidence suggests
185. 8:20our willpower is directly related to our
186. 8:23perception of willpower meaning if we
187. 8:27conceptualize our self-control as finite
188. 8:30it will be for decades ego depletion and
189. 8:34dozens of theories just like it have
190. 8:36infiltrated pop culture telling us your
191. 8:40mind works this
192. 8:42way but if our everyday experiences are
193. 8:46really shaped by
194. 8:48suggestion perhaps researchers haven't
195. 8:51discovered aspects of human
196. 8:54behavior maybe they created them
197. 9:00turns out we need a cheat day in our
198. 9:03diet because we think we need a cheat
199. 9:05day after uncovering egod depletions
200. 9:08rise and fall its role in the larger
201. 9:10crisis and implications some truths of
202. 9:13human behavior are rendered suspect Roy
203. 9:16bow Meister continues to defend his
204. 9:18life's work meanwhile researchers
205. 9:21wonder what theories will unravel next
206. 9:26[Applause]