Vicarious self-control use and persuadability: The role of resistance effort

Vicarious processing studies show that people sometimes experience the consequences of others’ actions. In the domain of self-regulation, this may result in increased susceptibility to persuasion attempts following mental simulation of another person’s self-control use—a vicarious depletion effect. Yet, little is known about the boundaries of such effects. Here, the interactive roles of persuasion content (argument strength) and resistance effort (message favorability) were examined. Vicariously depleted participants expressed greater positivity only toward advocated policies that were initially favorable and used strong arguments, but not toward policies that were initially unfavorable. These findings indicate that people are able to overcome the effects of vicarious depletion when they are highly resistant to the content of persuasive messages.