| Abstract: |
Individuals' willingness to act in socially desirable ways, such as sharing
resources with others and abiding by norms of ethical conduct, is a necessary
condition of social life. The current research reconciles two seemingly
contradicting sets of findings on the role of cognitive control in socially
desirable behaviors. One set of findings suggests that people are tempted by
self-serving impulses and have to rely on cognitive control overriding such
impulses to act in socially desirable ways. Another set of findings suggests
people are guided by other-regarding impulses and cognitive control is not
necessary to motivate socially desirable behaviors. We provide a theoretical
and empirical integration of these findings by identifying a key situational
variable--the salience of interpersonal impact--that determines whether the
dominant impulse is to behave in a self-serving or a socially desirable
manner. We suggest that the dominant impulse is to behave in a socially
desirable manner when the interpersonal impact of an action is salient, and
that the dominant impulse is to behave in a self-serving manner when the
interpersonal impact of an action is not salient. Consistent with this
prediction, Studies 1-3 found that impairing participants' cognitive control
led to less socially desirable behavior when interpersonal impact was not
salient, but more socially desirable behavior when interpersonal impact was
salient. Study 4 extended these findings by demonstrating that behaving in a
socially desirable manner causes cognitive control impairment when
interpersonal impact is not salient. But, when interpersonal impact is
salient, behaving in a self-serving manner impairs cognitive control. We
discuss the implications of our findings for understanding and managing
socially desirable behaviors. |