TY - JOUR
T1 - Morality in the time of cognitive famine
T2 - The effects of memory load on cooperation and honesty
AU - Mitkidis, Panagiotis
AU - Lindeløv, Jonas K.
AU - Elbaek, Christian T.
AU - Porubanova, Michaela
AU - Grzymala-Moszczynska, Joanna
AU - Ariely, Dan
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank L.K. Seitzberg, C. Cedergren, D.M.A. Castrillon, & J. Olvido for assistance during the study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Though human social interaction in general seems effortless at times, successful engagement in collaborative or exploitative social interaction requires the availability of cognitive resources. Research on Dual-Process suggests that two systems, the affective (non-reflective) and the cognitive (reflective), are responsible for different types of reasoning. Nevertheless, the evidence on which system leads to what type of behavioral outcome, in terms of prosociality, is at best contradicting and perplexing. In the present paper, we examined the role of the two systems, operationalized as working memory depletion, in prosocial decision-making. We hypothesize that the nature of the available cognitive resources could affect whether humans engage in collaborative or exploitative social interaction. Using Operation Span to manipulate the availability of working memory, we examined how taxing the cognitive system affects cooperation and cheating. In two experiments, we provide evidence that concurrent load, but not cumulative load is detrimental to cooperation, whereas neither concurrent nor cumulative load seems to affect cheating behavior. These findings are in contrast to several previous assumptions. We discuss limitations, possible explanations, and future directions.
AB - Though human social interaction in general seems effortless at times, successful engagement in collaborative or exploitative social interaction requires the availability of cognitive resources. Research on Dual-Process suggests that two systems, the affective (non-reflective) and the cognitive (reflective), are responsible for different types of reasoning. Nevertheless, the evidence on which system leads to what type of behavioral outcome, in terms of prosociality, is at best contradicting and perplexing. In the present paper, we examined the role of the two systems, operationalized as working memory depletion, in prosocial decision-making. We hypothesize that the nature of the available cognitive resources could affect whether humans engage in collaborative or exploitative social interaction. Using Operation Span to manipulate the availability of working memory, we examined how taxing the cognitive system affects cooperation and cheating. In two experiments, we provide evidence that concurrent load, but not cumulative load is detrimental to cooperation, whereas neither concurrent nor cumulative load seems to affect cheating behavior. These findings are in contrast to several previous assumptions. We discuss limitations, possible explanations, and future directions.
KW - Cheating
KW - Cooperation
KW - Honesty
KW - Morality
KW - Operation span
KW - Working memory load
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133621277&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103664
DO - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103664
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35810496
AN - SCOPUS:85133621277
SN - 0001-6918
VL - 228
JO - Acta Psychologica
JF - Acta Psychologica
M1 - 103664
ER -