The Effect Of Ego-depletion On College Students’ Deceptive Behavior

Deception widely exists in all kinds of species,whether it is human or animal,a common and necessary behavior for survival is deception.Studies have shown that33% of people’s daily interpersonal interactions are deceptive(Burgoon et al.,2003).Therefore,common deceptive behaviors are the focus of psychological research.This study starts from the perspective of reducing deceptive behaviors.To explore whether guilt and shame can delay the negative effects of ego-depletion,thereby reducing the occurrence of deceptive behaviors.Many existing studies have shown that self-control resources are limited.When the self-control resources are insufficient,the individual is in a state of self-depletion.At this time,the self-control ability is reduced and unethical behaviors(such as deceptive behaviors)are more likely to occur,but fortunately,ego-depletion is temporary It can be adjusted through rest,self-control training,etc.Whether guilt and shame as negative moral emotions can delay the negative impact of ego-depletion and reduce individual deceptive behavior is the focus of this research.This research uses three experiments to step by step to study the influence of ego-depletion on deceptive behavior,the influence of guilt on the relationship between ego-depletion and deceptive behavior,and the influence of shame on the relationship between ego-depletion and deception behavior.Experiment 1 uses a single-factor inter-subject design.The independent variable is the subject’s ego-depletion level(ego-depletion level: high ego-depletion,low ego-depletion),and the dependent variable is the number of deceptive behaviors of the participant.The independent sample t test is used to test the data.The analysis shows that the degree of ego-depletion is significantly positively correlated with the amount of deceptive behavior,that is,the deceptive behaviors of subjects with high ego-depletion are significantly more than those of low ego-depletion,and the Stroop task causes ego-depletion.The effectiveness of the red dot task,and the effectiveness of the red dot task to measure deceptive behavior.Experiment 2 uses a design of 2(ego-depletion level: high ego-depletion,low ego-depletion)× 2(guilt level: guilt activated,guilt not activated)to explore the moderating effect of guilt between ego-depletion and deceptive behavior,variance The analysis results show that the main effects of ego-depletion and guilt are significant,and their interaction is also significant.A simple effect analysis further clarifies the relationship between them.Regardless of whether it is high self-depletion or low ego-depletion,guilt can reduce deceptive behaviors.The occurrence of guilt can delay the negative effects of ego-depletion and reduce deceptive behavior,which is consistent with research hypotheses.Experiment 3also adopted a design of 2(ego-depletion level: high ego-depletion,low ego-depletion)× 2(shame level: shame activated,shame not activated)to explore the moderating effect of shame between ego-depletion and deceptive behavior.The results of analysis of variance showed that the main effects of ego-depletion and shame were significant,and the interaction effect was also significant.Further simple effect analysis showed that in the state of high loss,there was a significant difference in deceptive behavior between activating shame and not activating shame.The deceptive behavior of is significantly less than that of the control group,which is consistent with the research hypothesis that shame can delay the negative impact of ego-depletion and reduce deceptive behavior.Guilt and shame all play a moderating role between ego-depletion and deceptive behavior.