ArticleFrontiers in psychology2016
How to Make Nothing Out of Something: Analyses of the Impact of Study Sampling and Statistical Interpretation in Misleading Meta-Analytic Conclusions.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effectiveness of implementation intentions in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of ego depletion phenomenon in group-based hierarchical relations.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of Prior Cognitive Exertion on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2020Pooled it
- Cognitive Reserve? Cognitive Capacity!Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Covert eye-tracking: an innovative method to investigate compliance with instructions.Psychological research · 2021Article
- Evidence for a Behaviourally Measurable Perseverance Trait in Humans.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Effects of Self-Control on Subjective Well-Being: Examining the Moderating Role of Trait and State Motivation.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Bored Into Depletion? Toward a Tentative Integration of Perceived Self-Control Exertion and Boredom as Guiding Signals for Goal-Directed Behavior.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2020Article
- What You Don't Know Can Hurt You: Uncertainty Impairs Executive Function.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Article
- A Schema-Activation Approach to Failure and Success in Self-Control.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Is Learning With Elaborative Interrogation Less Desirable When Learners Are Depleted?Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- Effects of Cognitive Control Exertion and Motor Coordination on Task Self-Efficacy and Muscular Endurance Performance in Children.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2018Article
- Self-reports from behind the scenes: Questionable research practices and rates of replication in ego depletion research.PloS one · 2018Article
- Mental Work Requires Physical Energy: Self-Control Is Neither Exception nor Exceptional.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Review
- The Role of Self-Control and Motivation on Exhaustion in Youth Athletes: A Longitudinal Perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- Reproducibility in Psychological Science: When Do Psychological Phenomena Exist?Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- Fit to Forgive: Effect of Mode of Exercise on Capacity to Override Grudges and Forgiveness.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- The Debate on the Ego-Depletion Effect: Evidence from Meta-Analysis with theFrontiers in psychology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The limited resource model states that self-control is governed by a relatively finite set of inner resources on which people draw when exerting willpower. Once self-control resources have been used up or depleted, they are less available for other self-control tasks, leading to a decrement in subsequent self-control success. The depletion effect has been studied for over 20 years, tested or extended in more than 600 studies, and supported in an independent meta-analysis (Hagger et al., 2010). Meta-analyses are supposed to reduce bias in literature reviews. Carter et al.'s (2015) meta-analysis, by contrast, included a series of questionable decisions involving sampling, methods, and data analysis. We provide quantitative analyses of key sampling issues: exclusion of many of the best depletion studies based on idiosyncratic criteria and the emphasis on mini meta-analyses with low statistical power as opposed to the overall depletion effect. We discuss two key methodological issues: failure to code for research quality, and the quantitative impact of weak studies by novice researchers. We discuss two key data analysis issues: questionable interpretation of the results of trim and fill and Funnel Plot Asymmetry test procedures, and the use and misinterpretation of the untested Precision Effect Test and Precision Effect Estimate with Standard Error (PEESE) procedures. Despite these serious problems, the Carter et al. (2015) meta-analysis results actually indicate that there is a real depletion effect - contrary to their title.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.