Honestly Hungry: Acute Hunger Does Not Increase Unethical Economic Behaviour

Christian Truelsen Elbæk; Panagiotis Mitkidis; Lene Aarøe; Tobias Otterbring

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104312

Honestly Hungry: Acute Hunger Does Not Increase Unethical Economic Behaviour  

Christian Truelsen Elbæk, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Lene Aarøe, Tobias Otterbring

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avis › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

16 Citationer (Scopus)

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Abstract

Acute hunger leads to self-protective behaviour, where people keep resources to themselves. However, little is known about whether acute hunger influences individuals’ inclination to engage in unethical behaviour for direct monetary gains. Past research in moral psychology has found that people are less likely to cheat for monetary than non-monetary gains. Integrating research on scarcity into the study of unethical economic behaviour, we predicted that acute hunger increases cheating for monetary gains. We further predicted that this effect is moderated by childhood socioeconomic status, trait self-control, and moral identity. We tested these predictions in a well-powered laboratory experiment where we manipulated acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels and obtained a validated behavioural measure of cheating for direct monetary gains. Contrary to our predictions, our results show that acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels does not increase (or decrease) the propensity to engage in unethical economic behaviour and that neither childhood socioeconomic status nor trait self-control or moral identity moderate this relationship. These findings advance scientific understanding of whether experiences of scarcity shape moral judgment and decision-making.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Artikelnummer	104312
Tidsskrift	Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Vol/bind	101
Antal sider	11
ISSN	0022-1031
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104312
Status	Udgivet - jul. 2022

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10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104312

Elbæk_2022_Honestly_hungryAccepteret manuskript, 1,87 MBLicens: CC BY-NC-ND

Citationsformater

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title = "Honestly Hungry: Acute Hunger Does Not Increase Unethical Economic Behaviour  ",

abstract = "Acute hunger leads to self-protective behaviour, where people keep resources to themselves. However, little is known about whether acute hunger influences individuals{\textquoteright} inclination to engage in unethical behaviour for direct monetary gains. Past research in moral psychology has found that people are less likely to cheat for monetary than non-monetary gains. Integrating research on scarcity into the study of unethical economic behaviour, we predicted that acute hunger increases cheating for monetary gains. We further predicted that this effect is moderated by childhood socioeconomic status, trait self-control, and moral identity. We tested these predictions in a well-powered laboratory experiment where we manipulated acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels and obtained a validated behavioural measure of cheating for direct monetary gains. Contrary to our predictions, our results show that acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels does not increase (or decrease) the propensity to engage in unethical economic behaviour and that neither childhood socioeconomic status nor trait self-control or moral identity moderate this relationship. These findings advance scientific understanding of whether experiences of scarcity shape moral judgment and decision-making. ",

keywords = "Acute hunger, Blood glucose, Experimental methods, Moral psychology, Relative resource scarcity, Unethical economic behaviour",

author = "Elb{\ae}k, {Christian Truelsen} and Panagiotis Mitkidis and Lene Aar{\o}e and Tobias Otterbring",

year = "2022",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104312",

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T1 - Honestly Hungry: Acute Hunger Does Not Increase Unethical Economic Behaviour  

AU - Elbæk, Christian Truelsen

AU - Mitkidis, Panagiotis

AU - Aarøe, Lene

AU - Otterbring, Tobias

PY - 2022/7

Y1 - 2022/7

N2 - Acute hunger leads to self-protective behaviour, where people keep resources to themselves. However, little is known about whether acute hunger influences individuals’ inclination to engage in unethical behaviour for direct monetary gains. Past research in moral psychology has found that people are less likely to cheat for monetary than non-monetary gains. Integrating research on scarcity into the study of unethical economic behaviour, we predicted that acute hunger increases cheating for monetary gains. We further predicted that this effect is moderated by childhood socioeconomic status, trait self-control, and moral identity. We tested these predictions in a well-powered laboratory experiment where we manipulated acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels and obtained a validated behavioural measure of cheating for direct monetary gains. Contrary to our predictions, our results show that acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels does not increase (or decrease) the propensity to engage in unethical economic behaviour and that neither childhood socioeconomic status nor trait self-control or moral identity moderate this relationship. These findings advance scientific understanding of whether experiences of scarcity shape moral judgment and decision-making.

AB - Acute hunger leads to self-protective behaviour, where people keep resources to themselves. However, little is known about whether acute hunger influences individuals’ inclination to engage in unethical behaviour for direct monetary gains. Past research in moral psychology has found that people are less likely to cheat for monetary than non-monetary gains. Integrating research on scarcity into the study of unethical economic behaviour, we predicted that acute hunger increases cheating for monetary gains. We further predicted that this effect is moderated by childhood socioeconomic status, trait self-control, and moral identity. We tested these predictions in a well-powered laboratory experiment where we manipulated acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels and obtained a validated behavioural measure of cheating for direct monetary gains. Contrary to our predictions, our results show that acute physiological hunger as indexed by blood glucose levels does not increase (or decrease) the propensity to engage in unethical economic behaviour and that neither childhood socioeconomic status nor trait self-control or moral identity moderate this relationship. These findings advance scientific understanding of whether experiences of scarcity shape moral judgment and decision-making.

KW - Acute hunger

KW - Blood glucose

KW - Experimental methods

KW - Moral psychology

KW - Relative resource scarcity

KW - Unethical economic behaviour

U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104312

DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104312

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0022-1031

VL - 101

JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

M1 - 104312

ER -

Honestly Hungry: Acute Hunger Does Not Increase Unethical Economic Behaviour

Abstract

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Honestly Hungry: Acute Hunger Does Not Increase Unethical Economic Behaviour  