3 Social Proof Flashcards
Art 1
Dishonesty in Everyday Life
Two possible approaches for understanding and limiting future dishonesty
1. approach assumes that the current strategy for curbing dishonesty is the correct one but that it is not practiced sufficiently or with sufficient force, two variables
-the probability of being caught
-the magnitude of punishment
should increase, thus reducing or eliminating dis- honesty
2. approach, questions whether the typical path taken to reduce dishonesty
Art 1
Economic Theories of the Effect of External Incentives
-standard economic perspective
= Homo economicus: the individual is a rational, selfish human being who is interested only in maximizing his or her own payoffs
-restricted to the external costs and benefits of a dishonest act
Art 1
Psychological Theories of the Effect of Internal Incentives:
Internal rewards for Virtuous Behavior
- Additional: internal reward mechanisms that exert influ- ence on people’s decisions
- socialization is a key to the development of internalized reward mechanisms
- people feel good about complying with internalized social norms and values
- someone who cooperates should be rewarded, and someone who defects should be punished to reestablish socially desirable behavior
Art 1
Psychological Theories of the Effect of Internal Incentives:
Activation of Internal Rewards Lessens Sensitivity to External Incentives
- participants are more likely to be dishonest as the private information they have becomes more ambiguous
- external disincentives for dishonesty are only a part of a more complex picture
- people seem to possess internal reward mechanisms for honesty because when given the opportunity and incentive to be dishonest, they exhibited dishonest behavior, but this dishonest behavior was limited in its extent
- act of cheating itself can activate the internal reward
- relationship between the external and the internal reward mechanisms is complex
- below a certain level of dishonesty, the internal reward mechanism may not be activated at all and thus does not influence behavior 2. beyond the activation threshold, when the dishonest act is noticeable, the internal reward mechanism is activated and, at least within a certain range, exerts its maximal force independently of the level of external rewards
- when the external rewards become very large, they become tempting and may ultimately prevail. That is, at some point, a person’s internal standards could
Art 1
Psychological Theories of the Effect of Internal Incentives:
Changing the Activation Threshold for Internal Rewards
- higher self-awareness might lead to more honest behavior
- it is not emotional arousal per se that influences the tendency to cheat but rather a person’s understanding or interpretation of the meaning and significance of that arousal
Art 1
Self-Deception
DEF: biased, self-serving information flow within an individual, an active but unconscious misrepresentation of reality to the conscious mind
-even if people are fully self-aware (i.e., internal reward mechanism is active) and the net utility of deception is negative (i.e., costs loom larger than bene- fits), deception that eludes the person who is committing the dishonest act (i.e., self-deception) might not completely vanish.
Art 1
Policy Guidelines for Reducing Dishonesty
-The standard rational model of decisions about honesty and dishonesty assumes that people trade-off only external costs and benefits of an outcome
-IN CONSTRAST
the psychological model assumes that decisions about honesty also include considerations of internal reward mechanisms
4 general drivers of dishonesty:
(1) lower external costs and rela- tively higher benefits of deception
(2) lack of social norms, which results in a weak internal reward mechanism
(3) lack of self-awareness, which primes the activation of the internal reward mechanism
(4) self-deception
Art 1
When Dishonest Behavior is caused by External Rewards
Solution:
cost of dishonest actions must be greater than their expected benefits
Art 1
When Dishonest Behavior is Caused by the Internal Reward Mechanism
Solution:
invest in educational efforts and socialization to increase the strength of the internal reward mechanism
Art 1
When Dishonest Behavior is caused by Self-Deception
Solution:
eliminate the incentives that spawn the bias and simply eliminate the situations that can give rise to this type of behavior
-fighting deception caused by self-deception requires serious interventions that limit substantially the freedom and self-determination of people in certain situations
Art 1
Conclusion
- The standard economics perspective considers one cause for dishonesty–external reward mechanisms- emphasizes the probability of being caught and the magnitude of punishment as the only ways to overcome dishonesty
- In contrast, the psychological perspective we present herein suggests that dishonesty is also influenced by internal reward mechanisms
- the psychological perspective suggests that internal and external rewards are not simply additive but also take a particular functional form
the psychological approach for reducing dishonesty could be based on:
- increasing the long-term effectiveness of internal rewards (education)
- increasing the short-term effectiveness of internal rewards (contextual cues)
- eliminating the possibility of dishonest acts when the cause could be attributed to self-deception
Art 2
Cialdini´s focus theory of Normative Conduct
Focus theory of Normative Conduct
1. 2 different types of norms, descriptive and injunctive, which can have considerably
different effects on behavior. 2. any given norm is likely
to influence behavior to the extent that it is salient, or currently present
in one’s mind
Descriptive norms:
what is commonly done in a given situation, and they tend to motivate behavior by informing individuals of what is likely to be an effective
or adaptive course of action in that situation , provide a standard that people are motivated to follow
Injunctive norms:
what is commonly approved or disapproved within the culture (or within smaller
groups), they tend to motivate behavior through informal social rewards and punishments that are attached to the behavior
Art 2
The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms
-Simply communicating that the behavior is strongly disapproved, without providing any data on what the majority of people are doing can have a positive
effect on reducing these behaviors
-one type of norm in which the exact same information
can lead to positive or negative behavior depending on who the audience
= the descriptive norm as conveyed by an average
Solution:
in situations in which descriptive normative information might normally produce an undesirable backfire effect, it’s possible that adding an explicit and attention-grabbing injunctive element to the message
might prevent the occurrence of the backfire effect
Art 2
Whose Norms are the most Influential?
individuals are most likely
to conform to the norms of a given reference group when they see themselves
as similar in identity to the reference group
Art 2
The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms
Willpower
-self-regulation (or willpower) should be differentially required
for each, resulting in very different outcomes depending on the willpower
possessed by a target
- descriptive norms: simple heuristic, do not require much willpower
- injunctive norm: more systematic thinking, more willpower
- depleting the ability to exert willpower had the opposite effect in this case
- > making it more difficult to avoid just going along with the crowd
-When willpower becomes scarce, people are less likely to do what
they are told should be done and more likely to do what is done
