Greene Joshua D, Paxton Joseph M
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jul 28;106(30):12506-11. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0900152106. Epub 2009 Jul 21.
What makes people behave honestly when confronted with opportunities for dishonest gain? Research on the interplay between controlled and automatic processes in decision making suggests 2 hypotheses: According to the "Will" hypothesis, honesty results from the active resistance of temptation, comparable to the controlled cognitive processes that enable the delay of reward. According to the "Grace" hypothesis, honesty results from the absence of temptation, consistent with research emphasizing the determination of behavior by the presence or absence of automatic processes. To test these hypotheses, we examined neural activity in individuals confronted with opportunities for dishonest gain. Subjects undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) gained money by accurately predicting the outcomes of computerized coin-flips. In some trials, subjects recorded their predictions in advance. In other trials, subjects were rewarded based on self-reported accuracy, allowing them to gain money dishonestly by lying about the accuracy of their predictions. Many subjects behaved dishonestly, as indicated by improbable levels of "accuracy." Our findings support the Grace hypothesis. Individuals who behaved honestly exhibited no additional control-related activity (or other kind of activity) when choosing to behave honestly, as compared with a control condition in which there was no opportunity for dishonest gain. In contrast, individuals who behaved dishonestly exhibited increased activity in control-related regions of prefrontal cortex, both when choosing to behave dishonestly and on occasions when they refrained from dishonesty. Levels of activity in these regions correlated with the frequency of dishonesty in individuals.
当面对通过不诚实手段获利的机会时，是什么促使人们保持诚实？对决策中受控过程和自动过程之间相互作用的研究提出了两种假设：根据“意志”假设，诚实源于对诱惑的积极抵抗，类似于使奖励延迟的受控认知过程。根据“恩典”假设，诚实源于没有诱惑，这与强调由自动过程的存在或不存在来决定行为的研究一致。为了检验这些假设，我们研究了面对不诚实获利机会的个体的神经活动。接受功能磁共振成像（fMRI）的受试者通过准确预测电脑抛硬币的结果来赚钱。在一些试验中，受试者提前记录他们的预测。在其他试验中，受试者根据自我报告的准确性获得奖励，这使得他们能够通过谎报预测的准确性来不诚实地获利。许多受试者表现得不诚实，“准确性”水平令人难以置信。我们的研究结果支持“恩典”假设。与没有不诚实获利机会的对照条件相比，诚实行为的个体在选择诚实时没有表现出额外的与控制相关的活动（或其他类型的活动）。相比之下，不诚实行为的个体在选择不诚实时以及在他们克制不诚实行为的场合，前额叶皮层与控制相关区域的活动都有所增加。这些区域的活动水平与个体不诚实的频率相关。
