CMU research studies connection between human ego, health

MT. PLEASANT, Mich. (WNEM) - Whether you are kind and giving or narcissistic and selfish, a new study out of Central Michigan University explores how both types can be just as mentally draining.

“A saying that I enjoy is that if the brain was so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t,” said CMU doctoral student Charles Fales.

Fales is hoping his research could help us all in understanding the connection between human ego, and how it impacts our health.

“Ego depletion in this context refers to a draining of one’s ego and a draining of one’s self and mental battery of sorts, so not exactly the self-grainsizing ego that many people think of,” Fales said.

He found narcissism and manipulative behaviors can have just as much of an impact on our stress levels, as a person who is kind and agreeable.

“Ego depletion is one small part of a very wide discussion regarding mental health in today’s society,” Fales said. “It’s something like a mental battery that you expend by going through strenuous or stressful events.”

The goal of the study is to improve how organizations help vulnerable people.

“Ego depletion may play a role in wider mental health,” Fales said. “Research is a very slow going process, so while I would like to think at least, for my own benefit that I have contributed a very small building block to wider research literature, there is certainly much more to be done.”

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