Effects Of Self Depletion On College Students' Strong Reciprocal Behavior

Strong reciprocity is a common phenomenon in our daily interpersonal interaction.Individuals respond gratitude and reward to kind behavior,and when they are unfairly treated,the individuals are willing to incur personal costs to punish others who violate the social norm of fairness.There is numerous evidence which suggest that pro-social tendencies of strong reciprocity(positive reciprocity)and the tendency to punish unfair behavior(negative reciprocity)can promote and stable social interaction and cooperation.In the present,we are not clear about the psychological factors related to strong reciprocity.Therefore,in this study,I used ultimatum game paradigm and the trust investment game paradigm to explore the impact of the depletion of self-control on strong reciprocity behavior of college students,which involving the effect on strong negative reciprocity such as punishing an unfair behavior and the effect on strong positive reciprocity such as rewarding to a trust behavior.The present study included two behavioral experiments.Experiment 1 used mixed design by 2(the depletion of self-control:high depletion,low depletion)x5(the level of fairness:10%,20%,30%,40%,50%)to examine the effect of the depletion of self-control and fairness on negative reciprocity behavior of college students..The between-subject independent variable was the depletion of self-control;the within-subject independent variable was the level of fairness.The dependent variable was the rejection rate responded to the unfair offer.Experiment 2 used mixed design by 2(the depletion of self-control:high depletion,low depletion)x5(the level of trust:20%,40%,60%,80%,100%).The between-subject independent variable was the depletion of self-control,the within-subject independent variable was the level of trust.The dependent variable was the average amount returned by subjects.The data of both experiments were analyzed by 17.0SPSS.The present study explored that college students are concerned about the fairness and trust in interpersonal interaction instead of self-interest.With the decrease of the level of fairness,subjects are more likely to sacrifice their own interests to punish others,showing negative reciprocity behavior;with the increase of the level of trust,subjects tend to behave positive reciprocity.With the interaction of the depletion of self-control and fairness,it is more complicated for college students' negative reciprocity.In the extremely unfair condition(10%-20%),the college students of high depletion of self-control and low depletion of self-control are generally have a tendency to behave negative reciprocity.At the fair level of 30%,the rate of rejection of the subjects with the high depletion of self-control was significantly higher than the rate of rejection of the subjects with the low depletion of self-control.At the fair level of 40%-50%,the rate of rejection of the subjects with the low depletion of self-control was significantly higher than the rate of rejection of the subjects with the high depletion of self-control.The interaction between the depletion of self-control and trust has a weaker effect on positive reciprocity of the college students.Subjects with high depletion of self-control are more sensitive to trust and to reward others compared with the subjects of the low depletion of self-control.