| From a dual-processing perspective, individuals' decision-making in social dilemmas is the result of interplay between automatic processing and controlled processing. Based on review on different lines of research, a self-controller model and an social intuitionist model of decision-making in social dilemmas are proposed with opposing assumptions about nature of human prosociality as well as roles assigned to the automatic processing and controlled processing. Specifically, the self-controller model assumes individuals' prosociality is skin-deep, and major contribution of one's prosociality comes from controlled processing, through monitoring and regulating one's behavior to confirm to social norms; while the social intuitionist model assumes individuals' prosociality is innate, and major contribution of one's prosociality comes from the automatic processing through utilizing social exchange heuristics and intuitions that anchor individuals' behavior on a cooperative end. In three studies, we compared applicability of the two models in depicting prosocial behavior in a resource dilemma with different paradigms that are typically used to dissociate two modes of processing. These include manipulations on individuals' self-regulatory resources (Experiment 1), cognitive resources (Experiment 2), and processing goals (Experiment 3). Results from three experiments consistently advocated the self-controller model indicating that human's prosociality is the result of controlled processing. Taking individual differences concerning social preferences into the analyses, we found that proselfs' behavior was best described by the self-controller model. Results from study 3 and exploratory analysis also support that prosociality of proselfs depend heavily on controlled processing, in which people control their selfish instinct with calculation and deliberation. Prosocials' cooperative behavior did not follow prediction of the self-controller model. Instead, result from exploratory analyses suggests that prosociality of prosocials, as intuitive thinkers, depend more on automatic processing, in which people express their prosociality through utilizing heuristics and intuitions. We conclude that, although evidence from three studies favors the self-controller model, it only reflects part of the story. We need to take individual difference in social preferences in to consideration in order to deepen our understanding of the human prosociality and more effort should be done in testing mediating role of the social exchange heuristics for prosocials' cooperativeness.;Keywords: resource dilemma, self-controller model, social intuitionist model, dual-processing, social preferences. |
