The Decay Mechanism Of Self-deception

Self-deception will not only hurt self-deception individuals and cause individual losses,but also promote unethical behavior and lead to the bankruptcy of enterprises and governments,even has even brewed social disasters.Exploring how to reduce such costly self-deception can helps individual better monitor their self-deception behavior to prevent individual losses and prevent the harmful effects of self-deception on society,and promote the healthy development of individuals and society.Therefore,we used the forward-looking paradigm to explore the decay mechanism of self-deception through negative feedback(natural self-behavior cognition or other people’s feedback intervention before and after self-deception)and cheating prevention(immoral behavior intervention before self-deception).Research 1 applied the forward-looking paradigm to examine how positive beliefs appear in self-deception,and to further reveal the influence of negative feedback on positive beliefs to decrease self-deception.In Experiment 1,the answer group(with answer hints provided below the test material)and the control group(without answer hints)completed two tests.Participants estimated their Test 1 scores,predicted their performance on the upcoming Test 2 without answer hints,and completed Test 2.Their actual scores on the two tests were recorded.The results showed that the answer group predicted higher Test 2 scores than the control group,but the two groups did not differ in their actual scores.These results showed that the answer group had positive self-deception.In Experiment 2,the two groups were given negative feedback(vs.no feedback)after Test 1,and the changes between their estimated scores on Test 1 and their predicted score and actual score on Test 2 were measured.The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the estimated scores and the predicted score between the two groups under the feedback condition compared with the negative feedback condition.Research 2 used the forward-looking paradigm to examine the effect of negative feedback on the decay of self-deception over time and the influence of different negative feedback(no,ambiguous,real)on the decay of self-deception.In Experiment 3,the participants in the answer group and the control group were provided with two times of negative feedback(vs.no-feedback)after Test 2.The results showed that the actual scores and estimated scores of the answer group under the no-feedback and negative feedback condition were significantly higher than those of the control group in Test 1.In Test 2,3 and 4,the predicted scores under the condition of no-feedback were significantly higher than the condition of negative feedback.The results also showed that the self-deception results of inter-group comparisons were inconsistent with those of intra-group comparisons.Experiment 4 was conducted with monetary reward and different negative feedback conditions.The results showed that the estimated scores and actual scores of the answer group which under the three feedback conditions were significantly higher than those of the control group in Test 1.In Test 2,3 and 4,the predicted scores that without feedback are significantly higher than those under the ambiguous negative feedback and the real negative feedback,and the predicted scores under ambiguous negative feedback are significantly higher than those of under the real negative feedback.The results of comparison between groups were consistent with those within the group.Experiment 5 initiated the competition mode under the monetary reward on the basis of Experiment 4.The results showed that there were no significant differences between the estimated scores and the actual scores in the competition group and the non-competition group under the three feedback conditions in Test 1.Under the no-feedback condition,the predicted scores of competition group was significantly higher than those of the non-competition group in the Test 2,3,and 4.Under the ambiguous negative feedback condition,the predicted scores of competition group were significantly higher than those of the non-competition group in Test 2 and 4.Research 3 applied the forward-looking paradigm to examine the effects of cheating prevention under the negative feedback conditions on the decay of self-deception and the individual differences in self-esteem.Experiments 6 were set up cheating prevention,and participants need to press the key to actively see answer if they were cheating.The results showed that the estimated scores and actual scores of the prevented group were significantly lower than those of the no-prevented group under the three feedback conditions in Test 1.The predicted scores of the prevented group were significantly lower than those of the no-prevented group under the no-feedback condition in Tests 2,3 and 4 and the ambiguous negative feedback in Test 2.Experiment 7 selected participants with high or low self-esteem to measure.The results showed that the estimated scores and actual scores of high or low self-esteem for participants of the prevented group and the no-prevented group were not significantly different in Test 1.In no-prevented group,the predicted performance of high self-esteem participants was significantly higher than that of low self-esteem participants under the no-feedback conditions and ambiguous negative feedback conditions in Test 2 and Test 4,and under the real feedback conditions in Test 3.In the prevented group,there was no significant difference between high and low self-esteem under different feedback conditions.These findings demonstrated that the effectiveness of the forward-looking paradigm can induce cheating through the answer and activate participants’ positive beliefs to promote the occurrence of self-deception.In the experiment,the motivation of monetary reward is more conducive to self-deception than that of non-motivation.Negative feedback can decrease the occurrence of self-deception by reducing the positive beliefs of individuals and improving self-awareness to prevent or eliminate the negative impact of self-deception.Self-deception does not disappear immediately after negative feedback,but gradually fades in the course of time.Ambiguous negative feedback can effectively reduce the occurrence of self-deception,but it cannot decay self-deception.Compared with ambiguous negative feedback,real negative feedback can weaken the occurrence of self-deception more effectively,and it can also promote the decline of self-deception.Cheating prevention is the effective reduction of cheating and the establishment of positive beliefs to decrease self-deception,and cheating prevention under the negative feedback can accelerate the decline of self-deception.Self-esteem is positively related to self-deception,and the decline of self-deception of high Self-esteem participants are slower than those of low self-esteem participants,but this correlation only occurs in on-prevented group.Individuals performed better when self-deception decayed.The individual will benefit from the decay of self-deception.Decay of self-deception is conducive to the long-term development for individuals.The decay of self-deception not only comes from the introspection of individuals for self-behavior,but also from the negative feedback and the intervention of immoral behavior from the organizers of society or enterprises.The organizers of a society or an enterprise can decay individual self-deception by repeating multiple negative feedbackes and using of real negative feedback which is effectively decay self-deception,and can also shape the positive value criteria of the individual.Giving individual for intervention of immoral behavior(such as cheating prevention)for individual can improve the awareness of immoral behavior,and then promote effectively the decay of self-deception.