Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior

Cognitive control and socially desirable behavior: The role of interpersonal impact

“…Research suggesting that people experience impulses to behave in a self-serving manner and that impairment of cognitive control leads to less socially desirable behavior (e.g., Gino et al, 2011;Mead et al, 2009;Muraven et al, 2006) Consequently, other-regarding impulses might not have been activated in this set of studies.…”

“…One set of findings suggests that people impulsively behave in a self-serving manner and that cognitive control impairment (which makes people less able to override self-serving impulses) leads to less socially desirable behavior (e.g., Gino et al, 2011;Mead et al, 2009;Muraven, Pogarsky, & Shmueli, 2006). The other set of findings suggests that people have the impulse to behave in an other-regarding manner and that cognitive control impairment (which makes them less able to override other-regarding impulses) leads to more socially desirable behavior (e.g., Cornelissen et al, 2011;Zhong, 2011).…”

“…One set of findings suggests that although people experience impulses to engage in self-serving behaviors, they use cognitive control to override impulses, enabling socially desirable ways (Baumeister, 2005;Baumeister & Exline, 1999, 2000. For example, studies find that impairing participants' cognitive control leads to less socially desirable behaviors, such as cheating (Gino, Schweitzer, Mead, & Ariely, 2011;Mead, Baumeister, Gino, Schweitzer, & Ariely, 2009). Another set of findings suggests that socially desirable behavior is motivated by other-regarding impulses rather than cognitive control (de Waal, 2006;Greene & Paxton, 2009;Zhong, 2011).…”

“…The image of humans as being self-serving leads to the creation of workplaces where employees are subject to surveillance, excessive rules and tight contracts (Etzioni, 1988;Ghoshal & Moran, 1996;Schwartz, 1997). For example, based on their findings COGNITIVE CONTROL AND SOCIALLY DESIRABLE BEHAVIOR 4 that cognitively depleted individuals cheat more, Gino et al (2011) concluded that "managers and organizations should focus on removing temptations, developing self-control, and monitoring individuals who are likely to be depleted" (p. 200). Our theoretical formulation, if supported, would lead to the suggestion that managers can reduce unethical and other self-serving behavior by making salient the impact that one's actions have on others.…”

When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint Versus Separate Evaluation

“…Extensive research in behavioral decision making suggests that employers may decide differently in joint than in separate evaluation because they switch from a more intuitive evaluation mode based on heuristics in separate evaluation to a more reasoned mode when comparing alternatives in joint evaluation (Bazerman and Moore [2008]; Paharia et al [2009]; Gino et al [2011]). In addition, joint evaluation might also affect choices by providing additional data that employers can use to update their stereotypical beliefs about a group to which an employee belongs.…”