Showing papers by "Roy F. Baumeister published in 2009"

Too tired to tell the truth: Self-control resource depletion and dishonesty

Abstract: The opportunity to profit from dishonesty evokes a motivational conflict between the temptation to cheat for selfish gain and the desire to act in a socially appropriate manner. Honesty may depend on self-control given that self-control is the capacity that enables people to override antisocial selfish responses in favor of socially desirable responses. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that dishonesty would increase when people’s self-control resources were depleted by an initial act of self-control. Depleted participants misrepresented their performance for monetary gain to a greater extent than did non-depleted participants (Experiment 1). Perhaps more troubling, depleted participants were more likely than non-depleted participants to expose themselves to the temptation to cheat, thereby aggravating the effects of depletion on cheating (Experiment 2). Results indicate that dishonesty increases when people’s capacity to exert self-control is impaired, and that people may be particularly vulnerable to this effect because they do not predict it.

Rejection Elicits Emotional Reactions but Neither Causes Immediate Distress nor Lowers Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analytic Review of 192 Studies on Social Exclusion

Abstract: Competing predictions about the effect of social exclusion were tested by meta-analyzing findings from studies of interpersonal rejection, ostracism, and similar procedures. Rejection appears to cause a significant shift toward a more negative emotional state. Typically, however, the result was an emotionally neutral state marked by low levels of both positive and negative affect. Acceptance caused a slight increase in positive mood and a moderate increase in self-esteem. Self-esteem among rejected persons was no different from neutral controls. These findings are discussed in terms of belongingness motivation, sociometer theory, affective numbing, and self-esteem defenses.

Prosocial Benefits of Feeling Free: Disbelief in Free Will Increases Aggression and Reduces Helpfulness

Abstract: Laypersons' belief in free will may foster a sense of thoughtful reflection and willingness to exert energy, thereby promoting helpfulness and reducing aggression, and so disbelief in free will may make behavior more reliant on selfish, automatic impulses and therefore less socially desirable. Three studies tested the hypothesis that disbelief in free will would be linked with decreased helping and increased aggression. In Experiment 1, induced disbelief in free will reduced willingness to help others. Experiment 2 showed that chronic disbelief in free will was associated with reduced helping behavior. In Experiment 3, participants induced disbelief in free will caused participants to act more aggressively than others. Although the findings do not speak to the existence of free will, the current results suggest that disbelief in free will reduces helping and increases aggression.

The Symbolic Power of Money Reminders of Money Alter Social Distress and Physical Pain

Abstract: People often get what they want from the social system, and that process is aided by social popularity or by having money. Money can thus possibly substitute for social acceptance in conferring the ability to obtain benefits from the social system. Moreover, past work has suggested that responses to physical pain and social distress share common underlying mechanisms. Six studies tested relationships among reminders of money, social exclusion, and physical pain. Interpersonal rejection and physical pain caused desire for money to increase. Handling money (compared with handling paper) reduced distress over social exclusion and diminished the physical pain of immersion in hot water. Being reminded of having spent money, however, intensified both social distress and physical pain.

It's the thought that counts: The role of hostile cognition in shaping aggressive responses to social exclusion.

Abstract: Prior research has confirmed a casual path between social rejection and aggression, but there has been no clear explanation of why social rejection causes aggression. A series of experiments tested the hypothesis that social exclusion increases the inclination to perceive neutral information as hostile, which has implications for aggression. Compared to accepted and control participants, socially excluded participants were more likely to rate aggressive and ambiguous words as similar (Experiment 1a), to complete word fragments with aggressive words (Experiment 1b), and to rate the ambiguous actions of another person as hostile (Experiments 2-4). This hostile cognitive bias among excluded people was related to their aggressive treatment of others who were not involved in the exclusion experience (Experiments 2 and 3) and others with whom participants had no previous contact (Experiment 4). These findings provide a first step in resolving the mystery of why social exclusion produces aggression.

Deciding Without Resources: Resource Depletion and Choice in Context

Abstract: Although choices can occur after careful deliberation, many everyday choices are usually effortless and are guided by intuitive thinking. This research examines the implications of the interplay between these two types of decision processes for context effects in choice by exploring the consequences of the depletion of executive resources in a prior, unrelated task. Building on a substantial body of psychological literature that points to a single underlying resource used for self-regulation and executive control, this article demonstrates that resource depletion has a systematic influence on choice in context. Specifically, resource depletion enhances the role of intuitive reasoning by impairing deliberate, careful processing. In five experiments, the authors find that resource depletion increases the share of reference-dependent choices, decreases the compromise effect, and magnifies the attraction effect. The results shed light on the mechanisms underlying context effects in choice and suggest...

Looking again, and harder, for a link between low self-esteem and aggression.

Abstract: Recent field studies have revived the hypothesis that low self-esteem causes aggression Accordingly, we reanalyzed the data from a previous experiment and conducted a new experiment to study direct physical aggression in the form of blasting a fellow participant with aversive noise We also conducted a field study using a measure of indirect aggression in the form of a consequential negative evaluation High narcissists were more aggressive than others but only when provoked by insult or humiliation and only toward the source of criticism The combination of high self-esteem and high narcissism produced the highest levels of aggression These results support the view of aggression as stemming from threatened egotism and are inconsistent with the hypothesis that low self-esteem causes either direct or indirect aggression

Terror management theory and self-esteem revisited: the roles of implicit and explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects.

Abstract: Three studies tested the roles of implicit and/or explicit self-esteem in reactions to mortality salience. In Study 1, writing about death versus a control topic increased worldview defense among participants low in implicit self-esteem but not among those high in implicit self-esteem. In Study 2, a manipulation to boost implicit self-esteem reduced the effect of mortality salience on worldview defense. In Study 3, mortality salience increased the endorsement of positive personality descriptions but only among participants with the combination of low implicit and high explicit self-esteem. These findings indicate that high implicit self-esteem confers resilience against the psychological threat of death, and therefore the findings provide direct support for a fundamental tenet of terror management theory regarding the anxiety-buffering role of self-esteem.

Is There a Downside to Good Self-control?

Abstract: Most discussions of self-control have focused on its benefits rather than its costs. The most important cost appears to be the depletion of limited self-control resources. Acts of self-control both consume and require self-control resources, and, until these resources can be replenished, people's ability to perform many adaptive behaviors is compromised. These impairments affect not only self-control but also intelligent thought, effective decision making, and initiative. The limited resource itself presents further potential costs, insofar as the person must manage the limited resource (e.g., conserving for future demands), and managing the resource itself is presumably another demand for self-regulation and hence a drain on the limited resource. Trait self-control, in contrast, appears to have few or no downsides.

Uncertainty, Belongingness, and Four Needs for Meaning

Abstract: The Van den Bos research program is persuasive in demonstrating that when uncertainty arises, people cling to their cultural worldview. That is, uncertainty increases worldview defense. Why? The as...

Addiction and free will.

Abstract: Whether people believe that they have control over their behaviors is an issue that is centrally involved in definitions of addiction. Our research demonstrates that believing in free will - that is, believing that one has control over one's actions - has societal implications. Experimentally weakening free will beliefs led to cheating, stealing, aggression, and reduced helping. Bolstering free will beliefs did not change participants' behavior relative to a baseline condition, suggesting that most of the time people possess a belief in free will. We encourage a view of addiction that allows people to sustain a belief in free will and to take responsibility for choices and actions.

Social Rejection, Control, Numbness, and Emotion: How Not to be Fooled by Gerber and Wheeler (2009)

Abstract: Emotional numbness remains an empirically supported and theoretically intriguing pattern of response to social exclusion that warrants further research, and it would be a loss to the field if such research were prematurely terminated or hampered by the unwarranted conclusions from misleading meta-analyses. The meta-analyses by Gerber and Wheeler (2009, this issue) are based on a biased sample that omits much relevant work. Worse, the authors misinterpret what evidence they do assemble, even interpreting strong evidence for numbness as if it contradicted numbness. Their conclusions about control are similarly unfounded and misguided.

Personality and Behaviour: A Neglected Opportunity?

Abstract: Personality psychology has neglected the study of behaviour. Furr’s efforts to provide a stricter definition of behaviour will not solve the problem, although they may be helpful in other ways. His articulation of various research strategies for studying behaviour will be more helpful for enabling personality psychology to contribute important insights and principles about behaviour. The neglect of behaviour may have roots in how personality psychologists define the mission of their field, but expanding that mission to encompass behaviour would be a positive step. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Furr (this issue) has presented the problem of the neglect of behaviour in personality psychology. We share Furr’s view about the importance of studying behaviour and we appreciate the effort that the author has made in promoting progress in this direction. In our commentary we would like to address two issues that relate to reasons for this neglect in social and personality psychology. The first point concerns the importance that Furr attributes to having a proper definition of behaviour. Although efforts to improve precise definitions are nearly always useful for science and we appreciate Furr’s contribution, we do not share Furr’s diagnosis that this is the fundamental issue at hand. In fact, we suspect that at this point a search for a definition of what constitutes a behaviour runs the risk of turning this pressing practical problem into a philosophical discussion. In the early days of modern social psychology, researchers were not concerned with whether their measures fit strict definitions of behaviour, but with whether their research had relevance to everyday issues and problems, most of which clearly had something to do with behaviour. Many of the classic studies in social psychology were attempts to provide scientific explanations for everyday behaviours. The link between a psychologist’s lab and the experiences of the person in the street was intuitive. The neglect of behaviour by present day social/personality psychology is not a result of lack of a proper definition of behaviour—we suspect most researchers can agree broadly Discussion 433 Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Eur. J. Pers. 23: 403–435 (2009)