Cognitive reflection, 2D:4D and social value orientation

Abstract

The current study seeks confirmation for the hypothesis that 2D:4D (positively) predicts prosociality when people are more likely to rely on intuition than deliberation. We assess intuition and deliberation using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) and measure prosociality via the validated Social Value Orientation (SVO) slider measure. Although our results do not provide collective evidence for our main proposition, we observe in the data that for low (right) 2D:4D men, the more intuitive they are, the less prosocial they become, whereas for high (right) 2D:4D men the thinking style does not affect their prosociality. Importantly, we find that two alternative measures of cognitive reflection, CRT and CRT-2, differently relate to prosocial decision making such that only CRT-2 (but not the classic CRT) positively predicts prosociality. Given that previous research on the role of cognitive reflection and 2D:4D in prosocial decision making provided inconsistent results, the present study findings are highly valuable to get a better understanding in this domain of study. Furthermore, some of our findings invite further confirmatory tests, thereby opening up multiple avenues for further research.

Lower Digit Ratio (2D:4D) Indicative of Excess Prenatal Androgen Is Associated With Increased Sociability and Greater Social Capital

“…Here, we will argue that negotiation strategies, which are conceptually related to social networking, change from children to adulthood into more functional behavior in people with lower 2D:4D. In adult men, lower 2D:4D is associated with more uncooperative behavior, but only when they act intuitively or less reflected (Millet and Buehler, 2017; Millet and Aydinli, 2019) and as already mentioned, men with lower 2D:4D have stronger cognitive reflection skills (Bosch-Domenèch et al, 2014). In general, adult men with low 2D:4D prefer fair from either altruistic or egoistic choices (Millet and Dewitte, 2006), even though their faces appear more dominant to others (Neave et al, 2003).…”

“…At first glance, the observed negative correlation between 2D:4D and social network might contradict the fact that lower 2D:4D has been associated with suicide completion (Lenz et al, 2016) because social connectedness has been shown to be protective against suicidal behaviors (Fässberg et al, 2012). However, for suicide completion, it has been argued that correlations of lower 2D:4D with stronger cognitive reflection (Bosch-Domenèch et al, 2014; Millet and Aydinli, 2019) might play a role, leading to better planned and more successful suicide attempts, as 2D:4D measured independently from cognitive reflection is unrelated to suicidal thoughts and attempts (Lenz et al, 2019b).…”

“…The findings have been inconsistent, perhaps due to the complexity of human behavior and its interplay with environmental factors (Millet and Buehler, 2017). Indeed, contextual factors such as the presence of aggressive (Kilduff et al, 2013) or sexual cues (Van den Bergh and Dewitte, 2006), adult hormone levels (Millet and Dewitte, 2008; van Honk et al, 2012; Manning et al, 2014; Portnoy et al, 2015; Millet and Buehler, 2017), cognitive reflection (Millet and Aydinli, 2019), and time-pressure (Bird et al, 2019) moderate the relationship between 2D:4D and prosocial behavior in economic games. Furthermore, the relationships might differ across sex (Hönekopp and Watson, 2011).…”

How to Measure and Enhance Knowing Without Knowing? A Systematic Bibliometric Mapping and Visualization of Relationships between Rational and Intuitive Decision-Making Styles To Explore Training Methods

“…The CRT is a three-item, performance-based scale (Zhang, Highhouse, & Rada, 2016) that measures an individual's power to contain incorrect heuristics in favour of deliberation. Several studies have assessed intuition and deliberation using the CRT (e.g., Millet & Aydinli, 2019;Patel, Baker, & Scherer, 2019). For instance, Travers et al (2016) deployed a mouse-tracking methodology with the CRT.…”