Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (1): 171-177.

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People’s honest behavior is done automatically or deliberately: An explanation from the social heuristic hypothesis

  

  • Received:2021-05-10 Revised:2022-01-04 Online:2022-01-20 Published:2022-01-20
  • Contact: Jun REN

人的诚实行为是不假思索抑或是刻意为之: 来自社会启发式假说的解释

李陈宇1,2,曾辰2,王春生2,任俊3   

  1. 1. 长沙市雨花区雅境中学
    2. 浙江师范大学
    3. 浙江师范大学教育学院
  • 通讯作者: 任俊

Abstract: Abstract: Honesty plays an important role in promoting social harmony and economic development. Therefore, it is very important for individuals to act honestly in society. Most of the time people always face a trade-off between self-interest and honest self-image when making honest decisions. What kind of cognitive process is when individuals make honest behaviors? In the past, researchers still had controversies about the cognitive process of honesty, Greene and Paxton(2009) proposed the “Grace” hypothesis and the “Will” hypothesis. “Grace” hypothesis and “Will hypothesis are two hypothesis proposed in this area who are contradictory to each other. According to the ‘‘Grace’’ hypothesis, honesty results from the absence of temptation, it emphasizes that the first reaction of individuals when facing honest decisions is more inclined to be honest. Both the behavioral characteristics and neural activity characteristics of intuitive processing support the “Grace” hypothesis, individual’s honest reaction is faster than the lie reaction, and the honest response has less cognitive control participation to a certain extent. The brain regions related to cognitive control are less active when they exhibit honest behavior. According to the ‘‘Will’’ hypothesis, honesty results from the active resistance of temptation, it emphasizes the role of cognitive control in honest behavior, people made more cognitive efforts to overcome the temptation of profit in order to behave honestly. Both the evidence from research on self-depletion and the neural characteristics of cognitive control supports the “Will” hypothesis, the individual act more dishonestly after self-depletion, and the individual act a greater degree of activation of cognitive control brain areas when acting honestly. In summary, these two hypotheses have been supported by related studies. This article starts from the social heuristic hypothesis to explain the contradiction between the two. The social heuristic hypothesis proposes that individuals in a typical situations will adopt successful strategies automatically in typical situations, thus showing intuitive response characteristics. In honest decision-making, some people will internalize honesty as a typical strategy, while others will internalize dishonesty as a typical strategy. Individuals who use honesty as a heuristic strategy are intuitively honest, while individuals who use dishonesty as a heuristic strategy need cognitive control to be honest. Based on previous studies, the factors that influence the heuristic hypothesis include moral identity factors, the degree of importance individuals attach to economic interests, and different social situations. In view of the previous research on honest behavior, the current research paradigm of honest behavior mainly comes from the measurement paradigm of dishonest behavior, it is doubtful whether these paradigms measures real honest behavior. In addition, it is not clear that the neural coding of brain activity of individuals who default to honest or dishonest, and the dynamic neural processes of individuals when they act honestly. Therefore, future research can be explored using honest measuring paradigms with more ecological validity, the dynamic neural activity of honest behavior also deserves further exploration.

Key words: Key words: Grace hypothesis, Will hypothesis, dual-process theory, Social heuristic hypothesis

摘要: 诚实是指无论是否存在诱惑,个体都能真实地表达信息,研究者对诚实的加工过程仍存在争议,分别提出了Grace假说与Will假说。Grace假说认为诚实是一种不假思索的直觉化反应,Will假说认为诚实是个体主动进行认知控制的结果。文章根据社会启发式假说很好地解释了这两者之间的矛盾,以诚实为启发式策略的个体直觉上诚实,而以不诚实为启发式策略的个体需要认知控制才能诚实。未来研究可从采取更具生态效度的研究范式、诚实行为的动态神经活动等方面深入探究。

关键词: 关键词:Grace假说, Will假说, 双加工理论, 社会启发式假说