Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 Feb;178:405-416. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.013. Epub 2018 Oct 3.
Children's cheating and factors supporting honesty are not well understood. The current work explored variables involved in children's cheating through eye-tracking and an implicit manipulation in which extrinsic awareness of the effects of one's behaviors on others was primed. Participants played a computer game with the option for a monetary gain in which they could earn more if they selectively erred in response to more profitable stimuli. Results show that children cheat by making selective effort toward more profitable errors; however, extrinsic awareness inhibits these cheating behaviors. Importantly, gaze toward children's earnings mediates this relationship, suggesting that extrinsic awareness mitigates an impulsive looking pattern, which in turn results in less cheating. Findings suggest that an implicit manipulation, highlighting the potential implications of one's actions for others, seems to effectively suppress cheating among children. Furthermore, attention toward earnings offers a cognitive process that acts to mediate the effect of this manipulation on cheating. Taken together, this framework suggests psychoneurocognitive and social processes that influence cheating in children, offering a direction for future implicit intervention techniques to support honest performance.
儿童的欺骗行为及其支持诚实的因素尚未得到充分理解。本研究通过眼动追踪和内隐操作来探索儿童欺骗行为涉及的变量，其中，通过启动对自身行为对他人影响的外在意识来进行内隐操作。参与者玩一个电脑游戏，他们可以通过有选择地在更有利可图的刺激下犯错来获得更多的金钱奖励。结果表明，儿童通过对更有利可图的错误做出有选择性的努力来作弊；然而，外在意识抑制了这些作弊行为。重要的是，对儿童收益的注视中介了这种关系，表明外在意识减轻了冲动的注视模式，从而减少了作弊行为。研究结果表明，强调自身行为对他人潜在影响的内隐操作似乎能有效地抑制儿童的作弊行为。此外，对收益的关注提供了一种认知过程，起到了调节这种操作对作弊行为影响的作用。综上所述，该框架提出了影响儿童欺骗行为的心理神经认知和社会过程，为未来支持诚实表现的内隐干预技术提供了一个方向。
