Elena Svetieva: Emotion, Morality and Deception: Empathy Substrates and Moral Foundations in Predicting Self-Gain Deception

Duration: 13 mins 37 secs

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Created:	2015-09-28 18:00
Collection:	Decepticon 2015
Publisher:	University of Cambridge
Copyright:	Dr S. Van der Zee
Language:	eng (English)
Keywords:	Deception; Emotion; Morality;


Abstract:	Deception is a common, but morally-laden, human behavior. Current evolutionary and developmental theory suggests that moral foundations and moral behavior have their origins in the more fundamental substrates of empathy (theory of mind, recognizing mental and emotional states in others, and the tendency to feel congruent emotion with others). A set of three studies involving 300+ participants examined the links between these basic empathy substrates, moral foundations (Graham et al., 2011), and both acceptability and propensity towards self-gain deception. These were obtained through ratings of lie scenarios as well as behavior in a micro-decision task (Gneezy, 2005) where participants could choose to tell the truth, knowing that their counterpart would receive slightly more money, or lie to receive the greater monetary payout. Several findings emerged. Individuals with stronger moral foundation concerned with care towards others and avoidance of harm were consistently more likely to rate self-gain lies as unacceptable and tell the truth in the deception game. Moreover, empathy and emotion contagion have a significant indirect (mediated) influence on acceptability of self-gain lies, as mediated by the moral foundation of harm. Third, accuracy in recognizing emotion expressions of distress had a significant, direct and negative influence on acceptability of self- gain lies. Finally, analyses of participants’ open-ended responses regarding their behavior in Gneezy’s deception game indicated that their truth-telling behavior was motivated by either moral or pragmatic considerations, the latter of which was not predicted by moral foundations or attitudes towards self-gain deception. With this research we hope to open a broader discussion of how we can examine the more basic antecedents to deception behavior, both at the individual and evolutionary level, as well as explore the theoretical value of merging behavioral economics with social cognition and individual differences research disciplines.

Abstract:

Deception is a common, but morally-laden, human behavior. Current evolutionary and developmental theory suggests that moral foundations and moral behavior have their origins in the more fundamental substrates of empathy (theory of mind, recognizing mental and emotional states in others, and the tendency to feel congruent emotion with others). A set of three studies involving 300+ participants examined the links between these basic empathy substrates, moral foundations (Graham et al., 2011), and both acceptability and propensity towards self-gain deception. These were obtained through ratings of lie scenarios as well as behavior in a micro-decision task (Gneezy, 2005) where participants could choose to tell the truth, knowing that their counterpart would receive slightly more money, or lie to receive the greater monetary payout. Several findings emerged. Individuals with stronger moral foundation concerned with care towards others and avoidance of harm were consistently more likely to rate self-gain lies as unacceptable and tell the truth in the deception game. Moreover, empathy and emotion contagion have a significant indirect (mediated) influence on acceptability of self-gain lies, as mediated by the moral foundation of harm. Third, accuracy in recognizing emotion expressions of distress had a significant, direct and negative influence on acceptability of self- gain lies. Finally, analyses of participants’ open-ended responses regarding their behavior in Gneezy’s deception game indicated that their truth-telling behavior was motivated by either moral or pragmatic considerations, the latter of which was not predicted by moral foundations or attitudes towards self-gain deception. With this research we hope to open a broader discussion of how we can examine the more basic antecedents to deception behavior, both at the individual and evolutionary level, as well as explore the theoretical value of merging behavioral economics with social cognition and individual differences research disciplines.

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