Temporal view of the costs and benefits of self-deception

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - Tập 108 Số supplement_3 - Trang 15655-15659 - 2011
Zoë Chance1, Michael I. Norton2, Francesca Gino3, Dan Ariely4
1Department of Marketing, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163, USA.
2aDepartment of Marketing and
3bDepartment of Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163; and
4cDepartment of Marketing, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708

Tóm tắt

Researchers have documented many cases in which individuals rationalize their regrettable actions. Four experiments examine situations in which people go beyond merely explaining away their misconduct to actively deceiving themselves. We find that those who exploit opportunities to cheat on tests are likely to engage in self-deception, inferring that their elevated performance is a sign of intelligence. This short-term psychological benefit of self-deception, however, can come with longer-term costs: when predicting future performance, participants expect to perform equally well—a lack of awareness that persists even when these inflated expectations prove costly. We show that although people expect to cheat, they do not foresee self-deception, and that factors that reinforce the benefits of cheating enhance self-deception. More broadly, the findings of these experiments offer evidence that debates about the relative costs and benefits of self-deception are informed by adopting a temporal view that assesses the cumulative impact of self-deception over time.

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Tập 108 Số supplement_3

15655-15659

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