TY - JOUR
T1 - Cognitive control and dishonesty
AU - Speer, Sebastian P H
AU - Smidts, Ale
AU - Boksem, Maarten A S
N1 - Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Dishonesty is ubiquitous and imposes substantial financial and social burdens on society. Intuitively, dishonesty results from a failure of willpower to control selfish behavior. However, recent research suggests that the role of cognitive control in dishonesty is more complex. We review evidence that cognitive control is not needed to be honest or dishonest per se, but that it depends on individual differences in what we call one's 'moral default': for those who are prone to dishonesty, cognitive control indeed aids in being honest, but for those who are already generally honest, cognitive control may help them cheat to occasionally profit from small acts of dishonesty. Thus, the role of cognitive control in (dis)honesty is to override the moral default.
AB - Dishonesty is ubiquitous and imposes substantial financial and social burdens on society. Intuitively, dishonesty results from a failure of willpower to control selfish behavior. However, recent research suggests that the role of cognitive control in dishonesty is more complex. We review evidence that cognitive control is not needed to be honest or dishonest per se, but that it depends on individual differences in what we call one's 'moral default': for those who are prone to dishonesty, cognitive control indeed aids in being honest, but for those who are already generally honest, cognitive control may help them cheat to occasionally profit from small acts of dishonesty. Thus, the role of cognitive control in (dis)honesty is to override the moral default.
U2 - 10.1016/j.tics.2022.06.005
DO - 10.1016/j.tics.2022.06.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 35840475
SN - 1364-6613
VL - 26
SP - 796
EP - 808
JO - Trends in Cognitive Sciences
JF - Trends in Cognitive Sciences
ER -