Top Psychologist Renounces Ego Depletion

Michael Inzlicht, a formerly influential proponent of ego depletion, publicly says the theory has collapsed after replication failures and years of methodological problems; he criticizes defenders who call the effect ‘replicable’ and reflects on the personal and institutional fallout. The essay frames repudiation by original authors not as scandal but as a corrective that exposes incentives, repair needs, and the limits of intuitive theories about willpower. — A high‑profile renunciation reframes the replication crisis as active scientific self‑correction and matters for public policy, interventions, and trust in psychological science.