Beyond monetary value: how reward type drives cheating in a gender-judgment task

Background

Investigating the effects of monetary incentives on dishonest behavior provides valuable insights into human integrity and ethical decision-making processes. This study is conducted through the lens of self-concept maintenance theory.

Aim

The aim of this study is to examine the influence of different types of rewards (score-based vs. monetary) and their magnitude on dishonest behavior within a gender judgment task.

Method

Using a quantitative experimental design, this study involved 116 participants who were randomly assigned to conditions that differed in reward type (score or money) and magnitude (10 yuan vs. 50 yuan). Dishonest behavior was assessed using a gender judgment task with mechanisms to simulate conditions conducive to planned cheating.

Results

Results revealed significant differences in dishonesty rates between score and money conditions, with a higher proportion of dishonest participants observed in the score condition compared to the money condition. The timing of initial cheating was earlier in the score condition compared to the money condition. No significant differences were found in the proportion of dishonest participants, the cheating rate, or the timing of initial cheating across reward levels within either condition. The rate of cheating increased over time, suggesting a temporal dynamic in unethical decision making.

Conclusion

The study demonstrates that the nature of rewards significantly influences the likelihood of dishonest behavior, with intangible score-based rewards facilitating rationalizations for dishonesty more readily than tangible financial incentives. These findings enrich the understanding of moral psychology by highlighting the complex interplay between reward types, ethical rationalization, and the dynamics of dishonest behavior.

Exploring the factors influencing public intention for spectator sports consumption based on grounded theory

Spectator sports consumption serves as a vital component in the development of the sports industry. However, numerous challenges exist in fostering public engagement in this domain. Therefore, in order to explore the factors that influence public participation in spectator sport consumption, this study analyzes the intention to participate in spectator sports consumption from the perspective of consumers. On this basis, Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 25 members of the public, and three levels of coding were analyzed using the qualitative research method of procedural rooting theory and establish a model on the influence of public intention to participate in spectator sports consumption, and on this basis, we reveal the influence of crucial elements. The results of the study indicate that: Firstly, personal and psychological factors are significant internal drivers, while external drivers cover product and contextual factors. Secondly, the key to filling the attitudinal and behavioral gaps is the depth of perception individually, which is of great importance in increasing public participation. Thirdly, external contextual factors impacting consumer support primarily consist of external incentives, social influences, and urban contextual variables, which also serve a moderating role in the integration model. The results suggest that guiding the public to actively participate in spectator sport consumption should be based on an understanding of individual perceptions, emotions as well as attitudes. This paper develops a model examining public motivation to engage in spectator sports locally in China, pinpoints the primary influencing factors and mechanisms, and presents novel concepts for the sustainable growth of the sports sector.

The Effect of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Stereotype Threat on Inhibitory Control in Individuals with Different Household Incomes

Previous studies have discussed the impact of the socioeconomically disadvantaged stereotype threat (SDST) on inhibitory control. But the specific influences of the SDST on inhibitory control in different household income groups are not clear. We hypothesized that the SDST had different effects on inhibitory control in individuals with distinct household income, and the attribution of stimuli would influence it as well, especially the currency value of the stimuli. To investigate it, two studies were conducted, which required inhibiting their motor responses. Specifically, Study 1 explored the influence of the SDST on basic inhibitory control. Study 2 analyzed the influence of the SDST on inhibitory control when the input stimuli included currency values and monetary conception. The results revealed that the inhibitory control ability was worse in the lower income group but not during the processing of stimuli with currency value. For the effect of the SDST, it found that there was a negative effect on those with a lower household income and a positive effect on those with a higher household income. Based on the findings, the effect of the SDST on inhibitory control in human beings is not stable; instead, it varies depending on the traits of the stimuli in different tasks and of the individuals themselves.

Values- versus monetary reward-enhanced exposure therapy for the treatment of social anxiety in emerging adulthood

Exposure therapy represents the gold-standard treatment for social anxiety, yet evidence indicates the need for improvement. One promising avenue involves linking exposures to a motivator. The current study examined the impact of intrinsically-rewarding, personal values-enhanced versus extrinsically-rewarding, monetary-enhanced exposure on short-term social anxiety fear and avoidance outcomes, and evaluated impacted initial treatment motivation and exposure generalization.

METHODS

Sixty emerging adults ages 17-26 with significantly elevated social and public speaking anxiety were randomized to receive values-enhanced exposure, monetary reward-enhanced exposure, or exposure alone. They completed a laboratory session with a brief intervention and speech exposure, one-week follow-up with novel exposure, and online follow-up two weeks later. Subjective and behavioral anxiety measures were collected.

RESULTS

Linking exposures to values decreased self-reported anxiety following the speech exposure retest, which generalized to anticipatory anxiety prior to a novel speech task. Linking exposures to money temporarily increased speech length, but this difference did not remain during the novel task. Conditions showed similar improvements on other outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Extrinsic motivators can temporarily motivate exposure engagement, whereas a brief values intervention can enhance exposure learning and decrease subjective anxiety across feared situations compared to monetary enhancement. If replicated, this has pragmatic implications for exposure framing within social anxiety treatment.

Role of Incentives in the Use of Blockchain-Based Platforms for Sharing Sensitive Health Data: Experimental Study

BACKGROUND

Blockchain is an emerging technology that enables secure and decentralized approaches to reduce technical risks and governance challenges associated with sharing data. Although blockchain-based solutions have been suggested for sharing health information, it is still unclear whether a suitable incentive mechanism (intrinsic or extrinsic) can be identified to encourage individuals to share their sensitive data for research purposes.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate how important extrinsic incentives are and what type of incentive is the best option in blockchain-based platforms designed for sharing sensitive health information.

METHODS

In this study, we conducted 3 experiments with 493 individuals to investigate the role of extrinsic incentives (ie, cryptocurrency, money, and recognition) in data sharing with research organizations.

RESULTS

The findings highlight that offering different incentives is insufficient to encourage individuals to use blockchain technology or to change their perceptions about the technology's premise for sharing sensitive health data. The results demonstrate that individuals still attribute serious risks to blockchain-based platforms. Privacy and security concerns, trust issues, lack of knowledge about the technology, lack of public acceptance, and lack of regulations are reported as top risks. In terms of attracting people to use blockchain-based platforms for data sharing in health care, we show that the effects of extrinsic motivations (cryptoincentives, money, and status) are significantly overshadowed by inhibitors to technology use.

CONCLUSIONS

We suggest that before emphasizing the use of various types of extrinsic incentives, the users must be educated about the capabilities and benefits offered by this technology. Thus, an essential first step for shifting from an institution-based data exchange to a patient-centric data exchange (using blockchain) is addressing technology inhibitors to promote patient-driven data access control. This study shows that extrinsic incentives alone are inadequate to change users' perceptions, increase their trust, or encourage them to use technology for sharing health data.

Be Careful When Using Peer-Influence on Nudging Solicitation: Evidence of Potential Negative Effect from a Sample of Chinese University Students

PURPOSE

Peer information is now commonly used in solicitation. However, scholars have long focused on testing its effectiveness on increasing the donation amount without paying attention to its potential negative effects on donors. Thus, the current study employs high vs low peer donation amount (HPDA vs LPDA) information to explore its effect on "how-much-to-donate" decisions and the corresponding neural and psychological reactions at the same time.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

Student samples from a Chinese university and behavioral experiments with the event-related potential (ERP) method were used in this study.

RESULTS

The behavioral results are consistent with previous research in which HPDA was positively associated with higher donation levels. ERP results show the mechanisms behind decision-making can be summarized into a cognitive approach represented by cost-benefit analysis and an affective approach represented by reward perception. More surprisingly, in contrast to the behavioral results, LPDA elicits higher level of reward perception than HPDA.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate that although HPDA leads to higher levels of donation, donors do not show higher levels of reward anticipation at the neurological level, indicating the increment of donation may come at the cost of donors. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Priming congruence and COVID-19 vaccination intention: a mediation analysis

BACKGROUND

This study took place at the height of the fifth wave of COVID-19 in France, coinciding with stigmatizing communication toward the unvaccinated. We hypothesized that adherence to this communication would facilitate or inhibit the effects of priming on vaccination intention, depending on whether the priming included a dimension of connection to others.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

In a convenience online French sample (N = 1800, M age = 26.30), vaccination intention was asked after love priming, no love/prejudice priming, materialism priming, or a control condition. Participants also reported their adherence to restrictive measures, i.e., media control, vaccination pass, and mandatory vaccination.

RESULTS

Vaccination intention was higher in the no love/prejudice and materialism conditions than in the love and control conditions. Adherence to restrictive measures mediated the effect of prejudice or materialism priming on intention to get vaccinated.

CONCLUSIONS

Implications of these results are discussed in light of the socially situated cognition perspective and the congruence of (a) a societal context of communication toward the vaccine and the unvaccinated, (b) the participant's degree of adherence to that communication, (c) the theme of priming, whether or not related to feeling connected to others. Implications of materialism priming are discussed, and the effect of commitment on intention to get vaccinated.

Typical diet and type of economy do not predict food-sharing behaviors in three Tanzanian societies

Food sharing behavior is a widely observed phenomenon, and it draws attention of scholars interested in finding both proximate and ultimate explanations of such practices. In the current study, we focused on possible socio-economic and environmental food-sharing predictors: type of economy (i.e., immediate-return vs. delayed-return) and typical diet composition (i.e., proportion of proteins and carbohydrates in typical daily caloric intake). We investigated whether members of three societies from Tanzania (N = 177), namely hunter-gatherers (Hadza), pastoralists (Datoga), and agriculturalists (Iraqw) differ with regard to food-sharing patterns in the Dictator Game and reactions to violations of the food-sharing norms in the Ultimatum Game. We found that neither the type of economy nor the typical diet influenced our outcomes. The results indicated, however, that food sharing behavior was positively predicted by certain individual-level characteristics: people of higher strength and lower body fat shared more food, and women were more willing to share food than men.

A long-term negative effect of monetary incentives on the participatory surveillance of animal disease: a pilot study in Chiang Mai, Thailand

BACKGROUND

In general, animal diseases have a significant impact on public health; accordingly, an effective animal disease surveillance system is an important control system that requires efficient and engaging participants in the long run. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of monetary and social motivation on animal disease surveillance. We hypothesized that there are two sorts of motivation based on Fiske's relational theory (1992): monetary incentives (monetary markets) and nonmonetary incentives (social markets).

METHODS

In Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand, we analyzed data from a pilot project that began in 2014 and used a mobile application to report on signs that identify animal health problems. A total of 67 participants from 17 different areas in the central part of the province participated in this study. Participants in this study were divided into two groups: those who received monetary incentives and those who received social incentives.

RESULTS

According to the findings, the monetary market group's effort was significantly higher than that of the social market group during the time when the volunteers in the monetary market group were paid. However, in the long run, the monetary market group reported significantly less than the social market group. Social incentive, on the other hand, was more efficient once the payment period ended.

CONCLUSIONS

Social incentive outperformed monetary motivation in terms of efficiency and sustainability in the long run. Not only did the volunteers who were offered monetary incentive put in less effort than those who were offered the social incentive, but they were also not remotivated by the social incentive after the payment period had ended.

Vote-selling as unethical behavior: Effects of voter’s inhibitory self-control, decision toward vote-buying money, and candidate’s quality in Indonesia election

This study examines two stages of vote-selling among voters: to accept or refuse money, and then to vote for the vote-buyer or competitor. Using unethical behavior and money-as-temptation as a framework, we predict that the amount of the money will influence the decision to accept, but that the effect will be lower among voters with higher inhibitory self-control (ISC). We also predict that accepting money will influence the vote choice, but that the influence will be lower when the competitor has higher levels of integrity and leadership. Overall, the voters decision on money offered will moderate the relations between amount of money and vote choice. A population-based survey experiment with 1,220 participants of Indonesian voters was conducted to test these predictions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of 12 groups using a 4 (money offered: IDR50,000 vs. 100,000 vs. 150,000 vs. none) × 3 (candidate's personal quality: high leadership competitor vs. high integrity competitor vs. equal) between-group design. They made two hypothetical decisions: to accept or refuse the money, and to vote for the vote buyer or the competitor. The results showed that participants were signicantly tempted by larger amount of money, but the effect was moderated by ISC. However, there were no significant interaction between decision on money offered and candidates’ quality in influencing vote choice. Results from mediation analysis showed that accepting money was significantly mediate the influence of money on vote choice. Theoretical implications for understanding the practice of vote-buying and vote-selling are discussed.

Money priming and children’s self-evaluations

Previous studies have shown that money priming changes adults’ behavior and self-esteem, making them become more congruent with market mode. Money priming has also been seen to change behavior in children who have yet develop a complete understanding of its instrumental functions. Since money’s association with markets changes people’s behavior even in childhood, it is possible that its links and ties to self-esteem are forged at an early stage in life. The studies presented in this article aimed to verify how money priming affects various types of self-evaluations made by children. Two experimental studies were conducted. A total of 83 children aged 8–10 years took part in the first study, while 103 children aged 4–6 years took part in the second study. The results demonstrate that priming with money may change some, but not all, of children’s self-evaluations. Subsequent to money priming, children’s self-evaluations became more congruent with market mode: under the influence of money priming, children’s self-evaluations increased in domains involving perceived competences (associated with feelings of agency), but did not increase in domains related to social relationships.

Does losing money truly hurt? The shared neural bases of monetary loss and pain

Both monetary loss and pain have been studied for decades, but evidence supporting the relationship between them is still lacking. We conducted a meta‐analysis to explore the overlapping brain regions between monetary loss and pain, including physical pain and social pain. Regardless of the type of pain experienced, activation of the anterior insula was a shared neural representation of monetary loss and pain. The network representation pattern of monetary loss was more similar to that of social pain than that of physical pain. In conclusion, our research provided evidence of the common neural correlates of monetary loss and pain.

Exposure to money modulates the processing of charitable donation: An event-related potentials study

Exposure to monetary cues might affect charitable donations, but little is known about how monetary cues affect charitable donations from the neural perspective. The present study examined the effect of monetary cues on charitable donations by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants primed with monetary or neutral images decided whether to accept donation offers with the high, moderate, and low costs. The behavioural results showed that in the money-primed condition, participants took more time to decide for the high-cost than for the moderate and low-cost donation offers. The ERP results showed that the P2 and P3 were larger in the money-primed condition relative to the neutral images condition. Notably, participants primed with money demonstrated larger P3 for the high-cost donation offers than for the moderate and low-cost offers, but this difference was not observed in the control condition. These findings indicate that people primed with money may pay more attention to the cost-relevant information related to their self-interests when conducting prosocial behaviours.

Investigating Dishonesty-Does Context Matter?

This paper introduces frame-specific randomization devices to vary the situational context of an online lying experiment. Participants are asked to report outcomes of random draws from two different sources of uncertainty—decimals of the value of a stock index or a neutrally framed random number generator. The findings show that the frame-specific randomization device is not prone to the social norm effects documented in the literature. Because different environments can evoke different norms, I replicate the experiment in the more constrained setting of a traditional physical laboratory revealing no systematic differences in behavior. Furthermore, I am not able to show that participants who take longer to report are more honest and this is specific to the physical laboratory environment. Finally, the findings reveal gender differences in honesty depending on the environment—males are more honest when they participate in the laboratory as opposed to online.

Psychological Oneness: A Typology

Oneness is a sense of profound unity with some other entity, typically a large, abstract entity such as nature or all of existence. This article offers a typology of oneness based on a review of oneness concepts in the psychology literature. The typology distinguishes between oneness experiences and oneness intuitions or beliefs, the latter being propositions about how self and other are connected. It also distinguishes between three perceived ontologies: expansion (including other in self), interdependence (self and other in symbiosis), and essential (self and other sharing some fundamental property). Confirmatory factor analysis ( n = 102) supported the typology’s dimensions within the scope of nature, using novel sets of items based on restructuring extant oneness measures. Implications of the typology for understanding oneness with nature and its role in addressing environmental crises are discussed, including how these may interact with cultural context.

Who cares about ethical practices at workplace? A taxonomy of employees’ unethical conduct from top management perspective

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to explore the various kind of prevailing unethical practices at workplace along with identification of factors triggering such unethical practices. Growing incidences of indulgence of employees in unethical acts in various organisation and negative consequences associated with it for the organisation such as erosion of reputation because of advance digital media coverage, shareholder value and others made compulsive to study the root cause of unethical behaviour at the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

This study extracts meaning from the experiences of top managers working in nine Indian organisations to understand the challenges faced by individuals at the workplace using the Gioia methodology. A total of 33 top management team (TMT) members were interviewed in detail to capture their experience in regard to various challenges that impose a threat to ethical conduct in the organisation.

Findings

The authors identified four categories of unethical behaviour, namely, pro-self, lack of autonomy, pro-organisation, systemic and negligence. Further, the authors have developed a taxonomy suggesting strategies to control unethical conduct at the workplace. Besides, the current study unravels the triggers behind different categories of unethical conduct, such as bottom-line mentality, rent-seeking behaviour of government officials, fluid ethical study culture and others.

Originality/value

Various types of unethical behaviour have been identified and frameworks to address such unethical practices are suggested in the paper. TMTs views have been captured to understand the root cause of unethical practices and strategies for addressing them have been discussed in the paper.

Exposure to money modulates neural responses to outcome evaluations involving social reward

Recent research suggests that exposure to monetary cues strengthens an individual's motivation to pursue monetary rewards by inducing the 'market mode' (i.e. thinking and behaving in accordance with market principles). Here, we examined the effect of market mode on social reward processes by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants primed with monetary images or neutral images acted as advisors who selected one of two options for a putative advisee. Subsequently, all participants passively observed the advisee accepting or rejecting their advice and receiving a gain or loss outcome. After money priming, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) to the advisee's gain/loss outcome was larger following incorrect as compared to correct advice irrespective of whether the advice had been accepted or rejected. A smaller P3 following incorrect advice showed only when the advice was rejected. After neutral priming, the FRN was larger for incorrect relative to correct advice only when the advice had been rejected. However, the P3 was larger for correct relative to incorrect advice irrespective of the advisee's final choice. These findings suggest that the market mode facilitates early and automatic feedback processing but reduces later and controlled responding to outcomes that had been accepted.

Development of a Measure of Calculative Mindset (CM): Establishing a Nomological Net and Predictive Utility of the CM Measure

A calculative mindset (CM) describes the tendency to analyze and convert qualitative social values into numeric or monetary metrics and is a predisposition that shapes behaviors and actions of the employee. CM has been manipulated in experimental studies, but it has not been investigated in field research due to the absence of a scale to measure CM. In study 1, we followed Hinkin's scale development protocol to conceptualize, develop, and validate a measure of CM to facilirate research in organizational contexts. In Study 2, we examined the relationship between CM and measures of performance, counterproductive work behavior (CWB), organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and in role-performance (IRP). Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicate that CM is related to these performance outcomes and explains incremental variance over established measures of the Five-Factor Model of personality. Implications for personality research, selection of human resources, and facilitation of an ethical workplace are discussed.

How peer influence shapes value computation in moral decision-making

Moral behavior is susceptible to peer influence. How does information from peers influence moral preferences? We used drift-diffusion modeling to show that peer influence changes the value of moral behavior by prioritizing the choice attributes that align with peers' goals. Study 1 (N = 100; preregistered) showed that participants accurately inferred the goals of prosocial and antisocial peers when observing their moral decisions. In Study 2 (N = 68), participants made moral decisions before and after observing the decisions of a prosocial or antisocial peer. Peer observation caused participants' own preferences to resemble those of their peers. This peer influence effect on value computation manifested as an increased weight on choice attributes promoting the peers' goals that occurred independently from peer influence on initial choice bias. Participants' self-reported awareness of influence tracked more closely with computational measures of prosocial than antisocial influence. Our findings have implications for bolstering and blocking the effects of prosocial and antisocial influence on moral behavior.

Evaluating Board Candidates: A Threat-Contingency Model of Shareholder Dissent Against Female Director Candidates

Given the growing corporate social responsibility (CSR) pressures to increase board gender diversity and the scrutiny afforded to firms that fail to appoint female directors, one may expect shareholders to vote with greater support for women (than for men) nominated to boards. However, diversity management research suggests that pressures to improve female representation in organizations and in leadership roles may also backfire. We propose a threat-contingency model of shareholder dissent against female director candidates to explain when shareholders will be more or less likely to dissent against female (relative to male) directors. Specifically, we advance CSR legitimacy threats and agency threats as conditions contextualizing shareholder dissent against female director candidates. Using a sample of 50,202 director elections at 1,104 public firms from 2003 to 2015, we find that female directors receive less dissent from shareholders; further, low female board representation intensifies this leniency as CSR legitimacy threats become more salient. However, when firm-related agency threats occur (e.g., firm underperformance and media controversies), shareholders’ leniency toward female director candidates dissipates, and when directors themselves present agency threats (e.g., director attendance problems and nonindependence), shareholders evaluate female directors more harshly than male directors. Underlining the relevance of our theory, our supplementary analyses show that shareholder dissent increases the probability of director turnover. These findings contribute to theory and research on women on boards, firm responses to institutional pressures, and shareholder dissent.

Monetary payoffs modulate reciprocity expectations in outcome evaluations: An event-related potential study

Choosing cooperation or aggression relies on reciprocity preferences which refer to the tendency of an individual to return cooperative or aggressive action for cooperative or aggressive action (i.e., positive or negative reciprocity preference). The reciprocity preference is positively correlated with reciprocity expectation, wherein individuals with stronger reciprocity preferences may have higher expectations than future cooperative or aggressive behavior should be delivered by beneficiaries (positive reciprocity expectation) or victims (negative reciprocity expectation). Although previous studies have demonstrated that the presence of monetary payoffs enhances reciprocity preferences, the modulation of monetary payoffs in reciprocity expectations remains unclear. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we examined how monetary payoffs modulated reciprocity expectations by adopting the Chicken game. Participants were asked to choose between cooperation and aggression with a putative opponent in the Chicken game involving the monetary (vs. non-monetary) payoffs. Participants' electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded when they saw the opponent's cooperative or aggressive decision. Results showed that compared to the non-monetary payoff trials, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) effect in response to the opponent's decisions was stronger following the participant's aggressive decision in the monetary payoff trials, whereas P3 was insensitive to monetary payoffs. These findings suggest that monetary payoffs heighten expectations of negative reciprocity at the earlier and automatic outcome processing stage.

The Wealth State Awareness Effect on Attention Allocation in People From Impoverished and Affluent Groups

Previous studies have shown that poverty influences cognitive abilities and that those who have a negative living environment exhibit worse cognitive performance. In addition, eye measures vary following the manipulation of cognitive processing. We examined the distinctive changes in impoverished and affluent persons during tasks that require a high level of concentration using eye-tracking measures. Based on the poverty effect in impoverished people, this study explored how wealth state awareness (WSA) influences them. It was found that the pupillary state indexes of the impoverished participants significantly changed when their WSA was regarding poverty. The results suggest that awareness of poverty may cause impoverished individuals to engage in tasks with more attention allocation and more concentration in the more difficult tasks but that a WSA regarding wealth does not have such effect on them. WSA has no significant effects on their more affluent peers. The findings of this study can contribute to research on WSA effects on impoverished individuals from the perspective of eye measures.

The Adaptive Behavioral Components (ABC) Model for Planning Longitudinal Behavioral Technology-Based Health Interventions: A Theoretical Framework

A growing number of interventions incorporate digital and social technologies (eg, social media, mobile phone apps, and wearable devices) into their design for behavior change. However, because of a number of factors, including changing trends in the use of technology over time, results on the efficacy of these interventions have been mixed. An updated framework is needed to help researchers better plan behavioral technology interventions by anticipating the needed resources and potential changes in trends that may affect interventions over time. Focusing on the domain of health interventions as a use case, we present the Adaptive Behavioral Components (ABC) model for technology-based behavioral interventions. ABC is composed of five components: basic behavior change; intervention, or problem-focused characteristics; population, social, and behavioral characteristics; individual-level and personality characteristics; and technology characteristics. ABC was designed with the goals of (1) guiding high-level development for digital technology–based interventions; (2) helping interventionists consider, plan for, and adapt to potential barriers that may arise during longitudinal interventions; and (3) providing a framework to potentially help increase the consistency of findings among digital technology intervention studies. We describe the planning of an HIV prevention intervention as a case study for how to implement ABC into intervention design. Using the ABC model to plan future interventions might help to improve the design of and adherence to longitudinal behavior change intervention protocols; allow these interventions to adapt, anticipate, and prepare for changes that may arise over time; and help to potentially improve intervention behavior change outcomes. Additional research is needed on the influence of each of ABC’s components to help improve intervention design and implementation.

The Effect of Money Priming on Self-Focus in the Imitation-Inhibition Task

Abstract. The self-sufficiency hypothesis suggests that priming individuals with money makes them focus more strongly on themselves than on others. However, recently, research supporting this claim has been heavily criticized and some attempts to replicate have failed. A reason for the inconsistent findings in the field may lay in the common use of explicit measures, because they tend to rely on one or just a few items and are thus prone to demand effects and low reliability. In the present research, we administered, in two experiments, the imitation-inhibition task – a robust, unobtrusive, and reliable paradigm that is sensitive to self-other focus on a trial-by-trial basis. A pilot study found an increased focus on the self as compared to others when primed with money. Building on this finding, a preregistered high-powered experiment replicated this effect, suggesting that money primes may indeed increase a focus on the self. An additionally carried out meta-analysis indicates that automatic imitation is modulated by self-other focus and that money primes lead to a smaller focus on the self than conventional methods. Overall, the found effects are rather small and several limitations, such as order effects, call for a cautious interpretation of the findings.

Money: An Integrated Review and Synthesis From a Psychological Perspective

Many empirical studies have demonstrated the psychological effects of various aspects of money, including the aspiration for money, mere thoughts about money, possession of money, and placement of people in economic contexts. Although multiple aspects of money and varied methodologies have been focused on and implemented, the underlying mechanisms of the empirical findings from these seemingly isolated areas significantly overlap. In this article, we operationalize money as a broad concept and take a novel approach by providing an integrated review of the literature and identifying five major streams of mechanisms: (a) self-focused behavior; (b) inhibited other-oriented behavior; (c) favoring of a self–other distinction; (d) money’s relationship with self-esteem and self-efficacy; and (e) goal pursuit, objectification, outcome maximization, and unethicality. Moreover, we propose a unified psychological perspective for the future—money as an embodiment of social distinction—which could potentially account for past findings and generate future work.

"You're Ganja Have a Good Time": Investigating the Roots of Blunt Use Among a National Sample of Hispanic Adults

Blunt use is a pressing public health problem in the United States. While most studies have focused on African American youth, there remains a paucity of research examining blunt use among Hispanic individuals. Previous findings, which are quite limited, suggest mixed results, thus warranting further investigation regarding the prevalence of blunt use among Hispanic individuals and factors associated with such use. In accord with Jessor's problem behavior theory, we hypothesized that prior use of illicit substances and certain psychosocial risk factors pose an increased risk for blunt use among Hispanic adults. A secondary analysis examined prior substance use and psychosocial factors of 10,216 Hispanic lifetime blunt users participating in the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Findings revealed that one in five (20.5%) Hispanic individuals reported lifetime blunt use. Significant risk factors associated with blunt use were age (18+ years or older), participation in a government assistance program, prior illicit substance use, and changes in appetite or weight. Additional research on other risk factors, prevention mechanisms, and treatment interventions for Hispanic individuals who use blunts is warranted.

Culture and Love of Money: Evidence From the Iberian Peninsula and U.S. Hispanic Residents

Money has become a key element in any kind of relationship, both within and outside national borders. However, different cultures may give money a distinct role in society. Hence, the current study investigated the relationship between cultural values and the love of money. A survey was carried out to collect data from 813 individuals in total, 613 Spanish and Portuguese and 200 U.S. Hispanic. The hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS). Despite several differences in the results of both samples, Iberian and North American Hispanic samples have in common the fact that long-term orientation and indulgence positively influence the love of money budget factor. This study presents new evidence and reinforces fresh insights for managers to better understand their staff worldwide. Furthermore, organizational policies and practices related to ethics and organizational behavior should be adequately implemented, according to the love of money perception of members of their teams.

Games as Tools to Address Conservation Conflicts

Conservation conflicts represent complex multilayered problems that are challenging to study. We explore the utility of theoretical, experimental, and constructivist approaches to games to help to understand and manage these challenges. We show how these approaches can help to develop theory, understand patterns in conflict, and highlight potentially effective management solutions. The choice of approach should be guided by the research question and by whether the focus is on testing hypotheses, predicting behaviour, or engaging stakeholders. Games provide an exciting opportunity to help to unravel the complexity in conflicts, while researchers need an awareness of the limitations and ethical constraints involved. Given the opportunities, this field will benefit from greater investment and development.

Nostalgia Increases Financial Risk Taking

We examined, in five studies, the relation between nostalgia and financial risk taking. We hypothesized that nostalgia increases risk taking by fostering perceptions of social support. In Study 1, we established the basic effect of nostalgia and increased risk taking. In Study 2, we used a measurement-of-mediation approach to specify the underlying mechanism. Perceived support from family members, rather than from significant others or friends, mediated the relation between nostalgia and risk taking. In Studies 3 to 4, we further specified the mediating mechanism (i.e., family social support) and established direction of causality by using an experimental-causal-chain approach. Finally, in Study 5, we provided direct experimental evidence of the full mediation model. Taken together, nostalgia galvanizes perceived family support, which propels individuals toward financial risk.

Making seconds count: when valuing time promotes subjective well-being

Time is a finite and precious resource, and the way that we value our time can critically shape happiness. In this article, we present a conceptual framework to explain when valuing time can enhance versus undermine wellbeing. Specifically, we review the emotional benefits of valuing time more than money, and discuss the emotional costs of valuing time like money. Lastly, we suggest directions for future research examining the causes and consequences of the value that we place on our time.

The Effects of Money on Fake Rating Behavior in E-Commerce: Electrophysiological Time Course Evidence From Consumers

Online ratings impose significant effects on the behaviors of potential customers. Thus, online merchants try to adopt strategies that affect this rating behavior, and most of these strategies are connected to money, such as the strategies of returning cash coupons if a consumer gives a five-star rating (RI strategy, an acronym for “returning” and “if”) or returning cash coupons directly with no additional requirements (RN strategy, an acronym for “returning” and “no”). The current study explored whether a certain strategy (RN or RI) was more likely to give rise to false rating behaviors, as assessed by event-related potentials. A two-stimulus paradigm was used in this experiment. The first stimulus (S1) was the picture of a product with four Chinese characters that reflected the product quality (slightly defective vs. seriously defective vs. not defective), and the second stimulus (S2) displayed the coupon strategy (RN or RI). The participants were asked to decide whether or not to give a five-star rating. The behavioral results showed that the RI strategy led to a higher rate of five-star ratings than the RN strategy. For the electrophysiological time courses, the N1, N2, and LPP components were evaluated. The slightly defective products elicited a larger amplitude of the N1 component than the seriously defective and not-defective products, reflecting that perceptual difficulty was associated with the processing of the slightly defective products. The RI strategy evoked a less negative N2 and a more positive LPP than the RN strategy, indicating that the subjects perceived less conflict and experienced stronger incentives when processing the RI strategy. These findings will benefit future studies of fake online comments and provide evidence supporting the policy of forbidding the use of the RI strategy in e-commerce.

Sociality Mental Modes Modulate the Processing of Advice-Giving: An Event-Related Potentials Study

People have different motivations to get along with others in different sociality mental modes (i.e., communal mode and market mode), which might affect social decision-making. The present study examined how these two types of sociality mental modes affect the processing of advice-giving using the event-related potentials (ERPs). After primed with the communal mode and market mode, participants were instructed to decide whether or not give an advice (profitable or damnous) to a stranger without any feedback. The behavioral results showed that participants preferred to give the profitable advice to the stranger more slowly compared with the damnous advice, but this difference was only observed in the market mode condition. The ERP results indicated that participants demonstrated more negative N1 amplitude for the damnous advice compared with the profitable advice, and larger P300 was elicited in the market mode relative to both the communal mode and the control group. More importantly, participants in the market mode demonstrated larger P300 for the profitable advice than the damnous advice, whereas this difference was not observed at the communal mode and the control group. These findings are consistent with the dual-process system during decision-making and suggest that market mode may lead to deliberate calculation for costs and benefits when giving the profitable advice to others.

Does money change political views? – An investigation of money priming and the preference for right-wing politics

In a multistudy approach across seven studies we explored whether, as suggested by previous research, money primes affect people’s political orientation. Across the studies we used different dependent variables and samples, and we combined the results in a small-scale meta-analysis to test two competing hypotheses. Independent of the measures and experimental setting, our findings did not indicate that money primes lead to stronger right-wing orientations (main-effect hypothesis). However, we obtained a marginally significant interaction effect suggesting that the money priming effect is moderated by subjective socioeconomic status (moderation hypothesis). These findings suggest that, contrary to previous research, the money priming effect on political orientation is at best small and dependent on one’s subjective socioeconomic status. Implications for money priming research and political psychology are discussed.

Show Me the Money: A Systematic Exploration of Manipulations, Moderators, and Mechanisms of Priming Effects

A major challenge for accumulating knowledge in psychology is the variation in methods and participant populations across studies in a single domain. We offer a systematic approach to addressing this challenge and implement it in the domain of money priming. In three preregistered experiments ( N = 4,649), participants were exposed to one of a number of money manipulations before completing self-report measures of money activation (Study 1); engaging in a behavioral-persistence task (Study 3); completing self-report measures of subjective wealth, self-sufficiency, and communion-agency (Studies 1-3); and completing demographic questions (Studies 1-3). Four of the five manipulations we tested activated the concept of money, but, contrary to what we expected based on the preponderance of the published literature, no manipulation consistently affected any dependent measure. Moderation by sociodemographic characteristics was sparse and inconsistent across studies. We discuss implications for theories of money priming and explain how our approach can complement recent efforts to build a reproducible, cumulative psychological science.

The Relation Between Financial Incentives, Motivation, and Performance

Abstract. To this day, researchers are debating the adequacy of using financial incentives to bolster performance in work settings. Our goal was to contribute to current understanding by considering the moderating role of distributive justice in the relation between financial incentives, motivation, and performance. Based on self-determination theory, we hypothesized that when bonuses are fairly distributed, using financial incentives makes employees feel more competent and autonomous, which in turn fosters greater autonomous motivation and lower controlled motivation, and better work performance. Results from path analyses in three samples supported our hypotheses, suggesting that the effect of financial incentives is contextual, and that compensation plans using financial incentives and bonuses can be effective when properly managed.