Angels and demons
The Cheater’s High: The Unexpected Affective Benefits of Unethical Behavior
Nicole Ruedy et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, October 2013, Pages 531-548
Abstract:
Many theories of moral behavior assume that unethical behavior triggers negative affect. In this article, we challenge this assumption and demonstrate that unethical behavior can trigger positive affect, which we term a “cheater’s high.” Across 6 studies, we find that even though individuals predict they will feel guilty and have increased levels of negative affect after engaging in unethical behavior (Studies 1a and 1b), individuals who cheat on different problem-solving tasks consistently experience more positive affect than those who do not (Studies 2–5). We find that this heightened positive affect does not depend on self-selection (Studies 3 and 4), and it is not due to the accrual of undeserved financial rewards (Study 4). Cheating is associated with feelings of self-satisfaction, and the boost in positive affect from cheating persists even when prospects for self-deception about unethical behavior are reduced (Study 5). Our results have important implications for models of ethical decision making, moral behavior, and self-regulatory theory.
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Social Comparisons and Deception Across Workplace Hierarchies: Field and Experimental Evidence
Benjamin Edelman & Ian Larkin
Harvard Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
We examine how unfavorable social comparisons differentially spur employees of varying hierarchical levels to engage in deception. Drawing on literatures in social psychology and workplace self-esteem, we theorize that negative comparisons with peers could cause either junior or senior employees to seek to improve reported relative performance measures via deception. In a first study, we use deceptive self-downloads on SSRN, the leading working paper repository in the social sciences, to show that employees higher in a hierarchy are more likely to engage in deception, particularly when the employee has enjoyed a high level of past success. In a second study, we confirm this finding in two scenario-based experiments. Our results suggest that longer-tenured and more successful employees face a greater loss of self-esteem from negative social comparisons, and are more likely engage in deception in response to reported performance that is lower than that of peers.
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Gut Check: Reappraisal of Disgust Helps Explain Liberal–Conservative Differences on Issues of Purity
Matthew Feinberg et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Disgust plays an important role in conservatives’ moral and political judgments, helping to explain why conservatives and liberals differ in their attitudes on issues related to purity. We examined the extent to which the emotion-regulation strategy reappraisal drives the disgust–conservatism relationship. We hypothesized that disgust has less influence on the political and moral judgments of liberals because they tend to regulate disgust reactions through emotional reappraisal more than conservatives. Study 1a found that a greater tendency to reappraise disgust was negatively associated with conservatism, independent of disgust sensitivity. Study 1b replicated this finding, demonstrating that the effect of reappraisal is unique to disgust. In Study 2, liberals condemned a disgusting act less than conservatives, and did so to the extent that they reappraised their initial disgust response. Study 3 manipulated participants’ use of reappraisal when exposed to a video of men kissing. Conservatives instructed to reappraise their emotional reactions subsequently expressed more support for same-sex marriage than conservatives in the control condition, demonstrating attitudes statistically equivalent to liberal participants.
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Xiaowen Xu, Raymond Mar & Jordan Peterson
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Differences in political orientation are partly rooted in personality, with liberalism predicted by Openness to Experience and conservatism by Conscientiousness. Since Openness is positively associated with intellectual and creative activities, these may help shape political orientation. We examined whether exposure to cultural activities and historical knowledge mediates the relationship between personality and political orientation. Specifically, we examined the mediational role of print exposure (Study 1), film exposure (Study 2), and knowledge of American history (Study 3). Studies 1 and 2 found that print and film exposure mediated the relationships Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness have with political orientation. In Study 3, knowledge of American history mediated the relationship between Openness and political orientation, but not the association between Conscientiousness and political orientation. Exposure to culture, and a corollary of this exposure in the form of acquiring knowledge, can therefore partially explain the associations between personality and political orientation.
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Locomotion concerns with moral usefulness: When liberals endorse binding moral foundations
James Cornwell & Tory Higgins
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 2014, Pages 109–117
Abstract:
Moral Foundations Theory has provided a framework for understanding the endorsement of different moral beliefs. Our research investigated whether there are other reasons to endorse moral foundations in addition to epistemic concerns; specifically, the perceived social usefulness of moral foundations. In Study 1, we demonstrate that those showing stronger locomotion concerns for controlling movement tend toward a higher endorsement of binding foundations, and that this effect is stronger among political liberals who otherwise do not typically endorse these foundations. In Study 2, we show that priming participants with assessment concerns (emphasizing truth) rather than locomotion concerns (emphasizing control) reduces the response variance among liberals and also removes the association between locomotion and the binding foundations. In Study 3, we directly ask participants to focus on moral truth versus moral usefulness, with moral truth replicating the Study 2 effect of assessment priming, and moral usefulness replicating the effect of locomotion priming.
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Peter Hatemi et al.
Behavior Genetics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Almost forty years ago evidence from large studies of adult twins and their relatives suggested that between 30-60% of the variance in Liberal and Conservative attitudes can be explained by genetic influences. However, these findings have not been widely accepted or incorporated into the dominant paradigms that explain the etiology of political ideology. This has been attributed in part to measurement and sample limitations as well the inability to identify specific genetic markers related to political ideology. Here we present results from original analyses of a combined sample of over 12,000 twins pairs, ascertained from nine different studies conducted in five western democracies(Australia, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden, and the U.S.A.), sampled over the course of four decades. We provide definitive evidence that heritability plays a role in the formation of political ideology, regardless of how ideology is measured, the time period or population sampled. The only exceptions are questions that explicitly use the phrase "Left-Right". We then present results from one of the first genome-wide association studies on political ideology using data from three samples: a 1990 Australian sample involving 6,894 individuals from 3,516 families; a 2008 Australian sample of 1,160 related individuals from 635 families and a 2010 Swedish sample involving 3,334 individuals from 2,607 families. Several polymorphisms related to olfaction reached genome-wide significance in the 2008 Australian sample, but did not replicate across samples and remained suggestive in the meta-analysis. The combined evidence suggests that political ideology constitutes a fundamental aspect of one's genetically informed psychological disposition, but as Fisher proposed long ago, genetic influences on complex traits will be composed of thousands of markers of very small effects.
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Personality, Childhood Experience, and Political Ideology
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
Political Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article studies the relationship between the “big five” personality traits and political ideology in a large U.S. representative sample (N = 14,672). In line with research in political psychology, “openness to experience” is found to predict liberal ideology, and “conscientiousness” predicts conservative ideology. The availability of family clusters in the data is leveraged to show that these results are robust to a sibling fixed-effects specification. The way that personality might interact with environmental influences in the development of ideology is also explored. A variety of childhood experiences are studied that may have a differential effect on political ideology based on a respondent's personality profile. Childhood trauma is found to interact with “openness” in predicting ideology, and this complex relationship is investigated using mediation analysis. These findings provide new evidence for the idea that differences in political ideology are deeply intertwined with variation in the nature and nurture of individual personalities.
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Paving the road to preferential treatment with good intentions: Empathy, accountability and fairness
Steven Blader & Naomi Rothman
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 2014, Pages 65–81
Abstract:
Four studies explore whether, why, and under what conditions empathy may prompt group authorities and decision makers to enact preferential treatment toward particular members, favoring those group members over others when making allocation decisions. Based on prior research that emphasizes the prosocial consequences of empathy in dyadic relations, we predicted and found that empathy can prompt group leaders to enact preferential treatment even in multi-party contexts. However, this effect was moderated by the extent to which these leaders were accountable for their decisions, with high accountability attenuating the effect of empathy on preferential treatment. The mediating role of concerns about justice was also explored. Empathy led to preferential treatment among low accountability leaders because empathic emotion led leaders to perceive preferential treatment as relatively fair. In contrast, high accountability leaders evaluated preferential treatment as relatively unfair. These results indicate that empathy leads to preferential treatment because of people’s concerns about fairness — and not despite those concerns. Implications for theory and research on empathy and justice are discussed.
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Liu-Qin Yang et al.
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although experiencing unfairness is a primary source of stress, there are surprisingly few studies that have examined the physiological underpinnings of unfairness. Drawing from social self-preservation theory, we derive predictions regarding the effects of interactional unfairness on activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, which is one of the body’s primary hormonal systems for responding to stress. Using an experimental design with objective physiological measures, we found support for our hypothesis that interactional unfairness triggers the release of cortisol by the HPA axis. This cortisol activity in turn mediated the effects of interactional unfairness on deviant behavior. This indirect effect remained significant after controlling for established attitudinal and self-construal mediators of the justice–deviance relationship. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the occupational stress and organizational justice literatures.
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Elanor Kamans et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
In intractable intergroup conflicts, groups often try to frame intergroup violence as legitimate through the use of emotional appeals. Two experiments demonstrate that outsiders’ perception of which emotion conflict parties communicate influences the extent to which they legitimize their violence. Results show that although outsiders typically give more leeway to powerless groups because of their “underdog” status, communicating power-congruent emotions qualifies this effect; observers legitimize intergroup violence most when powerless groups communicate fear and when powerful groups communicate anger. This is because fear communicates that the group is a victim that cannot be blamed for their violence, whereas anger communicates that the group is wronged and thus their violence seems righteous and moral. Results further show that sympathy for the powerless appears to be a more fragile basis for legitimization of violence than the moral high ground for the powerful. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
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Personal characteristics and lying: An experimental investigation
Jason Childs
Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
We explore the relationship between personal characteristics and the decision to lie to an anonymous partner in a cheap talk environment. We find that sex, age, grade point average, student debt, size of return, socioeconomic status, and average time spent in religious observation are not related to the decision to lie. A subject’s major of study, the marital status of their parents, whether or not they were raised by a single parent, religious importance and whether or not the subjects came to collect their pay were important explanatory variables.
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Shawn Geniole et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
The facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is associated with a range of behaviours in men, but little is known about the underlying psychological mechanisms. We tested whether psychopathic personality traits were related to fWHR and mediated the link between this metric and cheating behaviour. Participants (146 men, 76 women) completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised and rolled dice to determine the number of ballots allowed for entry into a lottery for a cash prize. Men’s willingness to cheat (entering more ballots than permitted) and their extent of cheating (number of additional ballots) was associated positively with fearless dominance and fWHR. Further, in men, fearless dominance was correlated with fWHR and mediated the relationship between fWHR and willingness to cheat, but not the extent of cheating. In women, there were no differences in fWHR or in personality traits between cheaters and non-cheaters. Psychopathic personality traits may thus underlie some fWHR-behaviour relationships in men.
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Social distance decreases responders’ sensitivity to fairness in the ultimatum game
Hyunji Kim et al.
Judgment and Decision Making, September 2013, Pages 632–638
Abstract:
Studies using the Ultimatum Game have shown that participants reject unfair offers extended by another person although this incurs a financial cost. Previous research suggests that one possible explanation for this apparently self-defeating response is that unfair offers involve strong negative responses that decrease the chances of responders accepting offers that would objectively constitute a net profit. We tested the hypothesis that one way of reducing responders’ rejections of unfair offers is through increased psychological distance, so that participants move away from the concrete feeling of being unfairly treated. Social distance was manipulated by having participants play the Ultimatum Game either for themselves, or for another person. Compared to deciding for one’s self or a close social contact, participants showed less sensitivity to fairness when deciding for a stranger, as indicated by fewer rejected unfair offers. We suggest that social distance helps people move beyond immediate fairness concerns in the Ultimatum Game.
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The Joint Effects of Machiavellianism and Ethical Environment on Whistle-Blowing
Derek Dalton & Robin Radtke
Journal of Business Ethics, September 2013, Pages 153-172
Abstract:
Given the importance of the Machiavellianism construct on informing a wide range of ethics research, we focus on gaining a better understanding of Machiavellianism within the whistle-blower context. In this regard, we examine the effect of Machiavellianism on whistle-blowing, focusing on the underlying mechanisms through which Machiavellianism affects whistle-blowing. Further, because individuals who are higher in Machiavellianism (high Machs) are expected to be less likely to report wrongdoing, we examine the ability of an organization’s ethical environment to increase whistle-blowing intentions of high Machs. Results from a sample of 116 MBA students support our premise that Machiavellianism is negatively related to whistle-blowing. Further, we find that Machiavellianism has an indirect effect on whistle-blowing through perceived benefits and perceived responsibility. Finally, we find that a strong ethical environment, relative to a weak ethical environment, increases whistle-blowing intentions incrementally more for individuals who are higher in Machiavellianism. Taken together, these findings extend our understanding of how Machiavellianism and an organization’s ethical environment impact whistle-blowing.
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Harming Ourselves and Defiling Others: What Determines a Moral Domain?
Alek Chakroff, James Dungan & Liane Young
PLoS ONE, September 2013
Abstract:
Recent work has distinguished “harm” from “purity” violations, but how does an act get classified as belonging to a domain in the first place? We demonstrate the impact of not only the kind of action (e.g., harmful versus impure) but also its target (e.g., oneself versus another). Across two experiments, common signatures of harm and purity tracked with other-directed and self-directed actions, respectively. First, participants judged self-directed acts as primarily impure and other-directed acts as primarily harmful. Second, conservatism predicted harsher judgments of self-directed but not other-directed acts. Third, while participants delivered harsher judgments of intentional versus accidental acts, this effect was smaller for self-directed than other-directed acts. Finally, participants judged self-directed acts more harshly when focusing on the actor’s character versus the action itself; other-directed acts elicited the opposite pattern. These findings suggest that moral domains are defined not only by the kind of action but also by the target of the action.
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What People Think About Torture: Torture Is Inherently Bad … Unless It Can Save Someone I Love
Shannon Houck & Lucian Gideon Conway
Journal of Applied Security Research, Fall 2013, Pages 429-454
Abstract:
Prior research suggests people's abstract views of torture are often negative. We suspected, however, that those views might not fully represent torture perceptions in a scenario where they felt closeness to the potential victims. To test this idea, participants read a scenario about a crisis situation and completed measurements of their support for torture usage in the scenario. Scenarios varied in their degree of personal closeness to the victim. Results from 2 studies suggest that people were considerably more likely to support torture in applied, personally relevant scenarios compared to at-a-distant scenarios involving unknown victims. These studies can inform both our understanding of torture perceptions and the current cultural debate between deontologists and consequentialists about this topic.
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Methodological concerns in moral judgement research: Severity of harm shapes moral decisions
Bastien Trémolière & Wim De Neys
Journal of Cognitive Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research on moral judgement traditionally deals with scenarios involving trade-offs between saving lives and causing harm or death. In the field of moral psychology and philosophy, these specific scenarios are regularly used jointly, regardless of the severity of harm. We predicted that the confounding between distinct phrasings involving different degrees of harm will have an impact on the frequency of utilitarian judgements regardless of the mere moral value of the action (as usually investigated in the moral judgement field). In line with this prediction, a first experiment showed that utilitarian responses were less frequent for conflicting moral scenarios that involved death, as compared to scenarios that involved non-lethal harm. A second experiment showed that participants' utilitarian responses decreased as the severity of harm increased. Experimental studies on moral reasoning should take greater care to avoid potential confounds associated with this content factor.
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Disaster threat and justice sensitivity: A terror management perspective
Andreas Kastenmüller et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Based on terror management theory, we tested the idea that reminders of death strengthen justice sensitivity. In Study 1, we exposed participants to three different kinds of death-related pictures (terrorism vs. natural disasters vs. graveyards) or neutral pictures. The results showed that death-related visual material led to more justice sensitivity from three perspectives (victim, observer, and perpetrator) than neutral visual material. Likewise, Study 2 indicated that fake newspaper articles claiming that the likelihood of terrorism is very high (vs. low) strengthened these three justice sensitivity types. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Are People More Disturbed by Animal or Human Suffering: The Influence of Species and Age
Jack Levin & Arnold Arluke
Northeastern University Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
This research examines the widely held belief that people are more emotionally disturbed by reports of animal than human suffering or abuse. Two hundred and fifty six undergraduates at a major northeastern university were asked to indicate their degree of empathy for either a brutally beaten human adult or child versus an adult dog or puppy, as described in a fictitious news report. In a 2 (dog vs human) X 2 (infant or puppy vs adult) factorial experimental design, participants responded to one of four vignettes on a scale designed to assess their degree of empathy. We hypothesized that the dependence of victims — their age and not species — would determine participants’ level of distress and concern for them. However, results revealed a somewhat more complicated picture. The main effect for age but not for species was significant. In a significant interaction effect, moreover, we found significantly more empathy for victims who are human children, puppies and fully-grown dogs than for victims who are adult humans. In other words, age makes a difference for empathy toward human victims, but not for dog victims. We also found that female participants were significantly more empathic toward victims — either human or animal — than were their male counterparts.
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Focused on Fairness: Alcohol Intoxication Increases the Costly Rejection of Inequitable Rewards
Carey Morewedge, Tamar Krishnamurti & Dan Ariely
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 2014, Pages 15–20
Abstract:
This research examined the effect of alcohol intoxication on the propensity to behave inequitably and responses to inequitable divisions of rewards. Intoxicated and sober participants played ten rounds of a modified ultimatum game in two studies. Whereas intoxicated and sober participants were similarly generous in the proposals they made to their partners, intoxicated participants more often rejected unfair offers than did sober participants. These results were consistent whether alcohol intoxication was self-determined (Study 1) or randomly assigned (Study 2). The results provide insight into the cognitive processes underlying standards of equity and responses to inequity, and elucidate how intoxication influences these processes and subsequent behavioral responses.
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Damien Brevers et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: Altruistic punishment is an evolutionary-based mechanism aimed at maximizing the probability of reciprocity in cooperative exchanges, through the deterrence of non-cooperators. In economic games, humans will often punish others for non-cooperation, even if this punishment is costly to the self. For instance, in the Ultimatum Game paradigm, people refuse offers considered as unfair even though they are disadvantaged financially by doing so. Here, we hypothesize that, due to an impulsive decision making style, individuals with alcoholism will display an heightened unfairness sensitivity that leads them to reject advantageous offers more frequently on the Ultimatum Game
Methods: Thirty recently detoxified alcohol-dependent individuals and 30 matched healthy control participants performed the Ultimatum Game task, in which participants had to respond to take-it-or-leave-it offers ranging from fair to unfair and made by a fictive proposer
Results: Alcohol-dependent participants decided to reject unfair offers more frequently during the Ultimatum Game, as compared to controls
Conclusions: In situations of social frustration or irritation, such as unfair Ultimatum Game offers, alcohol-dependent individuals may have more difficulty than controls regulating their emotional impulses, and respond aggressively or retributively (i.e., by rejecting the unfair offer).
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Jean Decety et al.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, September 2013
Abstract:
While it is well established that individuals with psychopathy have a marked deficit in affective arousal, emotional empathy, and caring for the well-being of others, the extent to which perspective taking can elicit an emotional response has not yet been studied despite its potential application in rehabilitation. In healthy individuals, affective perspective taking has proven to be an effective means to elicit empathy and concern for others. To examine neural responses in individuals who vary in psychopathy during affective perspective taking, 121 incarcerated males, classified as high (n = 37; Hare psychopathy checklist-revised, PCL-R ≥ 30), intermediate (n = 44; PCL-R between 21 and 29), and low (n = 40; PCL-R ≤ 20) psychopaths, were scanned while viewing stimuli depicting bodily injuries and adopting an imagine-self and an imagine-other perspective. During the imagine-self perspective, participants with high psychopathy showed a typical response within the network involved in empathy for pain, including the anterior insula (aINS), anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), supplementary motor area (SMA), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), somatosensory cortex, and right amygdala. Conversely, during the imagine-other perspective, psychopaths exhibited an atypical pattern of brain activation and effective connectivity seeded in the anterior insula and amygdala with the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The response in the amygdala and insula was inversely correlated with PCL-R Factor 1 (interpersonal/affective) during the imagine-other perspective. In high psychopaths, scores on PCL-R Factor 1 predicted the neural response in ventral striatum when imagining others in pain. These patterns of brain activation and effective connectivity associated with differential perspective-taking provide a better understanding of empathy dysfunction in psychopathy, and have the potential to inform intervention programs for this complex clinical problem.
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Studying deception without deceiving participants: An experiment of deception experiments
Federica Alberti & Werner Güth
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, September 2013, Pages 196–204
Abstract:
Like avoiding labor protection laws via foreign subcontractors, banning deception in economic experiments does not exclude experiments with participants in the role of experimenters who, similar to properly incentivized subcontractors, can gain by deceiving those in the role of proper participants. We compare treatments with and without possible deception by ‘experimenter-participants’ in a dictator experiment and test whether participants in the role of experimenters engage in deception and whether deception affects the behavior of ‘participant-participants.’ We find that most participants in the role of experimenters engage in deception and that there is no difference in the behavior of participant-participants between treatments, even when repeating the experiment without deception after debriefing. Our results can be viewed as a contribution to studying the effects of unethical behavior via outsourcing it to subcontractors, by letting them do the harm.