The acute effects of stress on dishonesty are moderated by individual differences in moral default.

ABSTRACT: In daily life we regularly must decide whether to act dishonestly for personal gain or to be honest and maintain a positive image of ourselves. While evidence suggests that acute stress influences moral decisions, it is unclear whether stress increases or decreases immoral behavior. Here, we hypothesize that stress, through its effects on cognitive control, has different effects on moral decision making for different individuals, depending on their moral default. We test this hypothesis by combining a task which allows for inconspicuously measuring spontaneous cheating with a well-established stress induction task. Our findings confirm our hypothesis, revealing that effects of stress on dishonesty are not uniform, but instead depend on the individual: for those who are relatively dishonest

SUBMITTER: Speer SPH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9998439 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature