“I can see it in your eyes”: Biased Processing and Increased Arousal in Dishonest Responses

Abstract

According to self-maintenance theory, people notice their dishonest acts and thus experience ethical dissonance between their misconduct and their positive moral self. In this view, dishonesty is facilitated by justifications that redefine moral boundaries. By contrast, the bounded ethicality approach suggests that biased perception prevents people from becoming aware of their dishonesty. We tested the key process assumptions behind these accounts using pupillary responses and fixation data and found physiological evidence for both kinds of mechanisms. In particular, physiological arousal increased at the initial stage of cheating responses. This suggests that people are on some level aware of their wrongdoings. At the same time, however, we found attentional biases that can reduce the likelihood for detecting potentially disadvantageous information. We suggest that dishonest acts come at the internal cost of increased tension, which people aim to avoid by pre-emptive biased processing as well as post hoc justifications

Cheating among children: Temptation, loss framing, and previous cheating

“…Data relating to the latter type of mistakes were removed from further analyses. The fact that, in most cases, the differences were beneficial to participants (see the distinction between beneficial and detrimental errors in Hochman, Glöckner, Fiedler, & Ayal, ) confirms the fact that the difference between the recorded and reported values reflects real cheating rather than just random errors. Of the 94 cheating decisions, 58 (61.70%) involved partial cheating, whereas 33 (35.11%) involved cheating to the maximum possible extent and declaring a 6 on the die.…”

Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty

“…Moral concerns can be a source of distress, because they confront people with desires that are inconsistent with their moral principles (Allport, 1955 ; Hochman, Glöckner, Fiedler, & Ayal, 2015 ; Rosenberg, 1979 ; Wilkinson, 1987 ). These concerns trigger a stress reaction linked to the autonomic nervous system (ANS) response.…”

Emotional Intelligence Buffers The Effect of Physiological Arousal On Dishonesty

“…Moral concerns can be a source of distress, because they confront people with desires that are inconsistent with their moral principles (Allport, 1955;Hochman, Glöckner, Fiedler, & Ayal, 2015;Rosenberg, 1979;Wilkinson, 1987). These concerns trigger a stress reaction linked to the autonomic nervous system (ANS) response.…”