ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2014, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (6): 841-851.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.00841

• 论文 • 上一篇    下一篇

好人可能做出坏行为的心理学解释 —— 基于自我控制资源损耗的研究证据

任俊;李瑞雪;詹鋆;刘迪;林曼;彭年强   

  1. (1浙江师范大学教师教育学院心理健康实验室, 金华 321004) (2首都师范大学教育学院, 北京 100048) (3中国科学院心理健康重点实验室, 北京 100101)
  • 收稿日期:2013-07-03 发布日期:2014-06-30 出版日期:2014-06-30
  • 通讯作者: 任俊;詹鋆
  • 基金资助:

    中国科学院心理健康重点实验室开放课题(KLMH2012K04)资助。

Can Good People Commit Evil Acts? Evidence of Ego-depletion on Individuals’ Altruistic Behavior

REN Jun;LI Ruixue;ZHAN Jun;LIU Di;LIN Man;PENG Nianqiang   

  1. (1 Lab of Mental Health, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China) (2 College of Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China) (3Key Lab of Mental Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)
  • Received:2013-07-03 Online:2014-06-30 Published:2014-06-30
  • Contact: REN Jun;ZHAN Jun

摘要:

一些平常表现很好的个体为什么会在一些特定场合做出坏行为?本研究旨在检验自我控制资源对人行为的影响。实验1使用stroop任务产生自我损耗来操纵被试的自我控制水平, 观察独裁者任务中的好行为(利他行为)是否受自我损耗的影响。结果表明, 与无自我损耗组被试相比, 自我损耗组被试表现出更少的好行为, 并且明显地低于公平水平而趋向利己(坏行为)。实验2比较了自我损耗个体的公平准则启动、利己启动和无启动三种条件, 观察独裁者任务中的好行为(利他行为)是否受不同启动类型的影响。实验结果发现, 同样处于自我损耗状态的被试, 被启动公平准则的被试与无启动和利己启动的被试相比, 前者在独裁者任务中表现出更少的坏行为, 表明公平启动会减少自我损耗个体的坏行为。

关键词: 利他行为, 有限自制力模型, 自我控制资源, 自我损耗

Abstract:

Why do good people commit evil acts?The present study tests the evidence of ego-deletion on individuals’ altruistic behavior. Self-regulation is particularly useful for overcoming socially undesirable impulses so as to behave in ways (such as sharing to others) that are consistent with social and personal ideals. In this article, we suggest that people may overcome a natural impulse toward selfishness and self-interest when sharing with others, and, to overcome this impulse may require advanced psychological processes, such as self-control. According to the Theory of Limited Self-control Resource, the resource for self-control is limited. When self-control resource is over consumed, ego-depletion will be initiated, which can adversely affect the individuals’ performance in the self-regulation. Our hypothesis, therefore, is that sharing can depend on self-regulation, which refers to the capacity to alter the self and its responses to bring them in line with various standards, such as goals and ideals. Two experiments were used to examine the impact of ego-depletion on individuals’ decision making in a dictator game, and to observe what would happen to ego-depleted people if they were induced by fairness or selfishness induction. In Experiment 1, subjects were manipulated into ego-depletion or non-ego-depletion and were tested how abundant or deficient self-control resources would influence their altruistic behavior. Experiment 2 was conducted to evaluate the subjects’ reaction to fairness or selfishness cognition priming when they were exhausted. In addition, all the participants had the power to allocate scarce resources between themselves and others in the dictator game, which measured the altruistic level of allocators. Participants showed less altruistic behavior when they were ego-depleted than when they were not ego-depleted. This confirmed the explanatory power of Self-control Theory where controlled processes impact the subjects’ altruistic tendency. On the other hand, priming the cognition of social norms such as fairness might remit the after-effect of ego-depletion on subjects’ altruistic behavior, while the subjects who were induced by selfishness did not display difference contrast to subjects of non-cognitive priming. The implications of the findings for everyday interpersonal decisions were considered. The results from these two experiments: 1) suggested that ego-depletion made individuals more likely to act selfishly if the individuals did not have the executive resources to identify moral issues in the situation and 2) tested that priming the cognition of social norms such as fairness might remit the after-effect of ego-depletion on subjects’ altruistic behavior. Moreover, the fairness induction might not only save the self-control resources of individuals to balance gain and loss but also propel individuals to be concerned with external social fairness norms. It is worth noting that the remission of fairness priming about ego-depletion effect on altruistic behavior was limited. Remission maintained the individuals’ decision-making as a fair type of altruistic behavior. Future research on altruistic behavior using the dictator task should evaluate the effects of personal variables.

Key words: altruistic behavior, Theory of Limited Self-control Resource, self-control resource, ego-depletion