Self-Regulation and Helpfulness

Isabella St.Francis
Social Psychology
Professor McGovern

Citation:
Depletion Makes the Heart Grow Less Helpful: Helping as a Function of Self-Regulatory
Energy and Genetic Relatednes, Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2008; 34; 1653.
C. Nathan DeWall, Roy F. Baumeister, Matthew T. Gailliot and Jon K. Maner.
Main Concepts/Theory:
All humans have an unconscious need to please others and to be helpful. Helping
others can also become a phenomenon. For example, last year the Ice Bucket
Challenge became extremely popular. People of all ages and back rounds were joining
the challenge. Most cultures and religions also encourage helping others. However,
there are other factors that can interfere with helping such as using up personal
resources or having selfish impulses. These experiments studied whether depleted
resources cause people to be less likely to help others.
Introductory Research:
Helping other people causes ego depletion. The smaller the tasks, the smaller amount
of resources are used. There were 3 different experiments conducted to try to prove the
hypothesis. Before each experiment the participants were required to complete a task.
The participants had a task that required self-regulation or one that did not. In
experiment 1, after the task the participants were asked to rate their willingness to help
others. Women were less likely to help than males. It was also proven that mood did not
make a difference when it came to helping. In experiment 2, the same experiments
were conducted but the participants were also asked to drink a glucose drink
(lemonade). In theory the glucose would help restore the resources that were previously
depleted. After the drink participants were asked to commit to helping a person out for

as long as possible. The participants who drank the lemonade helped out longer than
participants who didnt. Experiment 3 tested whether helping out family vs. strangers
made a difference. Some people reported that when helping a stranger they pretend it is
a family member. It is likely that people are more willing to help out family because it is a
natural instinct. Because of this automatic response it takes up less energy.
Conclusions:
After reflecting on these experiments, it is clear that people are less likely to help others
when their mental resources are depleted. But even with depleted resources, they are
still willing to help out family members. This is because it is beneficial to help out
family/friends rather than strangers. It is a natural instinct of survival. If people with
depleted resources are given a drink or food with glucose in it, it increases the persons
likeliness to help. Numerous religions and cultures promote helping and being
charitable. Because people want to be socially accepted, they are more likely to help.
The only aspects this research paper does not cover are the motives to helping others
and how much the person actually helped others.
Reflection:
After reading this paper, I realized that I am also more willing to help family/friends than
strangers. At least, the extent to which I am willing to help is greater. People actually say
that I always get taken advantage of because I have a hard time saying no. But it shows
that because of my natural instincts, it is automatic to try and help out kin. The
experiments also show that because of social obligations and cultural persuasions, I
feel required to even help out strangers. I also liked this article because as a kid I
always knew to avoid asking my mom for something if she was in a bad mood. Know I

know that she had probably used her resources being angry at a certain situation and
all she needed was some sugar. I also avoided asking her for things if she had a long
day that required a lot of attention and control for the same reason. Another interesting
thing that I pieced together was about charity events such as walks, runs, or marathons.
I walk for the March of Dimes every year. Each year they provide bagels, juice, coffee,
and other related breakfast items. This glucose will renew the volunteers resources and
in theory give them more energy to run faster or donate more.