Columbia University.
Bard College.
J Soc Psychol. 2024 May 3;164(3):273-279. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2022.2058906. Epub 2022 Mar 31.
People tend to rate prosocial or positive behavior as more strongly influenced by the actor's genes than antisocial or negative behavior. The current study tested whether people would show a similar asymmetry when rating the role of genes in their own behavior, and if so, what variables might mediate this difference. Participants were prompted to think about an example of their own behavior from the past year that was either prosocial or antisocial. Those in the prosocial condition rated the role of genetics in causing the behavior as significantly greater than did those in the antisocial condition. A mediation analysis suggested that this asymmetry could be accounted for by a tendency to view prosocial behavior as more natural and more aligned with one's true self than antisocial behavior. These findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that people's reasoning about genetics may be influenced by evaluative judgments.
人们倾向于认为亲社会或积极的行为受到行为者基因的影响比反社会或消极的行为更大。本研究测试了当人们评价基因在自己行为中的作用时，是否会表现出类似的不对称性，如果是这样，哪些变量可能会调解这种差异。参与者被提示思考过去一年中自己的一种亲社会或反社会行为。在亲社会条件下，参与者对遗传因素在引起行为中的作用的评价显著高于反社会条件下的参与者。中介分析表明，这种不对称可以用一种倾向来解释，即认为亲社会行为比反社会行为更自然，更符合自己的真实自我。这些发现增加了越来越多的证据，表明人们对遗传学的推理可能受到评价判断的影响。
