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27-08-2016 | Original Article

Smooth criminal: convicted rule-breakers show reduced cognitive conflict during deliberate rule violations

Auteurs: Aiste Jusyte, Roland Pfister, Sarah V. Mayer, Katharina A. Schwarz, Robert Wirth, Wilfried Kunde, Michael Schönenberg

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 5/2017

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Abstract

Classic findings on conformity and obedience document a strong and automatic drive of human agents to follow any type of rule or social norm. At the same time, most individuals tend to violate rules on occasion, and such deliberate rule violations have recently been shown to yield cognitive conflict for the rule-breaker. These findings indicate persistent difficulty to suppress the rule representation, even though rule violations were studied in a controlled experimental setting with neither gains nor possible sanctions for violators. In the current study, we validate these findings by showing that convicted criminals, i.e., individuals with a history of habitual and severe forms of rule violations, can free themselves from such cognitive conflict in a similarly controlled laboratory task. These findings support an emerging view that aims at understanding rule violations from the perspective of the violating agent rather than from the perspective of outside observer.
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Metagegevens
Titel
Smooth criminal: convicted rule-breakers show reduced cognitive conflict during deliberate rule violations
Auteurs
Aiste Jusyte
Roland Pfister
Sarah V. Mayer
Katharina A. Schwarz
Robert Wirth
Wilfried Kunde
Michael Schönenberg
Publicatiedatum
27-08-2016
Uitgeverij
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Gepubliceerd in
Psychological Research / Uitgave 5/2017
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-016-0798-6

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