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.