Cheating at the end to avoid regret.

Effron, Daniel A.; Bryan, Christopher J.; Murnighan, J. Keith

doi:10.1037/pspa0000026

Cited by 45 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…For example, in our design no feedback, such as external punishment for dishonesty or praise for honesty, was provided or expected. In the real world, however, other factors will likely facilitate dishonesty escalation or halt it, including feedback, opportunity and altering rewards and punishment 42,35,43.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The brain adapts to dishonesty

et al. 2016

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Dishonesty is an integral part of our social world, influencing domains ranging from finance and politics to personal relationships. Anecdotally, digressions from a moral code are often described as a series of small breaches that grow over time. Here, we provide empirical evidence for a gradual escalation of self-serving dishonesty and reveal a neural mechanism supporting it. Behaviorally, we show that the extent to which participants engage in self-serving dishonesty increases with repetition. Using fMRI we show that signal reduction in the amygdala is sensitive to the history of dishonest behavior, consistent with adaptation. Critically, the extent of amygdala BOLD reduction to dishonesty on a present decision relative to the last, predicts the magnitude of escalation of self-serving dishonesty on the next decision. The findings uncover a biological mechanism that supports a “slippery slope”: what begins as small acts of dishonesty can escalate into larger instances.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The brain adapts to dishonesty

et al. 2016

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“…The present study attempts to contribute to existing motivational accounts of risk taking by examining how motivation shifts as individuals are approaching an ending may lead to increased risky decision making. Recent studies have suggested that individuals’ reactions tend to change toward the end of a series of tasks (Effron, Bryan, & Murnighan, 2015; Li & Epley, 2009; McKenzie et al, 2016; O’Brien & Ellsworth, 2012). In the domain of risky decision making, it has been suggested that individuals show increased risk taking at the end of a series of gambles (e.g., McKenzie et al, 2016); however, the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon remains unknown.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Ending Effect in Investment Decisions: The Motivational Need for an Emotionally Rewarding Ending

Xing

Meng

Isaacowitz

et al. 2018

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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The present study examined the power of endings on risky decision making. With four experiments, the changes in the individuals' risk-taking tendencies were examined as the end of an investment decision task approached; the role of motivational shift toward emotional satisfaction in the ending effect was also explored. As predicted, participants who knew they were working on the last round of an investment task were more risk seeking than those who did not know (i.e., ending effect, Experiment 1). Experiments 2 through 4 examined the motivational mechanism of the ending effect. The results supported the notion that the motivation to pursue an emotionally rewarding ending leads to the ending effect. The present research complements existing motivational accounts of risk taking and suggests a new research direction of integrating factors associated with time perception of an approaching ending into existing models of risky decision making.

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“…For instance, participants may have viewed the 10th round and 20th round as the end of each stage, leading to shifts in risk-taking behavior. To address this concern, future studies examining the ending effect should avoid using multiples of 10 or 5 as the number of rounds or use a different number of rounds as the control group (Effron et al, 2015 ). Another possible explanation is that as the decision task continues, after several trials, people tend to become more conservative because generally, people are risk aversive (Larrick, 1993 ; Benartzi and Thaler, 1995 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longshot or Favorite: The Ending Effect in Investment Decisions

2021

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The ending effect describes the phenomenon that at the end of a series of repeated risky decision-making tasks, participants become more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior. Past research has suggested that the ending effect might be caused by a motivational shift induced by changes in time perception. Previous studies mainly tested this phenomenon in a binary decision-making setting (e.g., a decision-making task usually includes two alternatives). However, none of these prior studies included safe options and risky options that differed in risk levels. To address this knowledge gap, the present study replicated the ending effect in a repeated decision-making task that included both a safe option and risky options that differed in risk levels (N = 104). We found that at the end of the decision-making task, participants became more likely to engage in risk-taking and to favor the option with the highest risk. Further, we found that the investment likelihood and investment amount of high-risk options both increased significantly at the ending. In addition, a shift in favoring the safe option emerged in the noninformed condition at the end. We also found that the emotional motivation in the last round could predict the increased preference for high-risk at the ending. This study extended previous findings on the ending effect by adopting a more complex decision-making scenario and, more broadly, helped further our understanding of the psychological consequences of perceived endings.

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Cheating at the end to avoid regret.

Cited by 45 publications

References 86 publications

The brain adapts to dishonesty

The brain adapts to dishonesty

The Ending Effect in Investment Decisions: The Motivational Need for an Emotionally Rewarding Ending

Longshot or Favorite: The Ending Effect in Investment Decisions

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