Motivated misperception: Self-regulatory resources affect goal appraisals

• Three studies examine the impact of resource depletion on goal appraisals.
• When participants are resource depleted, they appraise their personal goals in ways that excuse inaction.
• Resource depletion also changes perceptions of the necessity of human involvement in societal goals.
• Resource depletion may not only decrease goal pursuit but justify a lack of goal pursuit.

Three studies examine how self-regulatory resources affect goal appraisals, finding support for the hypothesis that when low in self-regulatory resources, individuals endorse statements that rationalize either inaction or less effortful goal pursuit. Study 1 examines appraisals of self-set personal goals, finding that resource-depleted participants describe their goals as less urgent and less consequential. Study 2 examines reappraisals of weight loss goals, replicating the effects of Study 1. Finally, Study 3 examines this reappraisal process in the context of a broader societal goal of environmental conservation. This work contributes a new perspective to the large literature on resource depletion by demonstrating that depletion alters cognition in ways that may excuse the well-documented decrease in behavioral pursuit that arises from resource depletion.