Shaul Shalvi | Ben Gurion University of the Negev (original) (raw)
Papers by Shaul Shalvi
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2000
Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-contr... more Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-control, which indicates that serving self-interest is an automatic tendency. However, evidence also suggests that people cheat to the extent that they can justify their unethical behavior to themselves. To merge these different lines of research, we adopted a dual-system approach that distinguished between the intuitive and deliberative cognitive systems. We suggest that for people to restrict their dishonest behavior, they need to have enough time and no justifications for self-serving unethical behavior. We employed an anonymous die-under-cup task in which participants privately rolled a die and reported the outcome to determine their pay. We manipulated the time available for participants to report their outcome (short vs. ample). The results of two experiments support our prediction, revealing that the dark side of people's automatic self-serving tendency may be overcome when time to decide is ample and private justifications for dishonesty are not available.
Psychological science, Jan 15, 2015
To some extent, unethical behavior results from people's limited attention to ethical conside... more To some extent, unethical behavior results from people's limited attention to ethical considerations, which results in an ethical blind spot. Here, we focus on the role of ambiguity in shaping people's ethical blind spots, which in turn lead to their ethical failures. We suggest that in ambiguous settings, individuals' attention shifts toward tempting information, which determines the magnitude of their lies. Employing a novel ambiguous-dice paradigm, we asked participants to report the outcome of the die roll appearing closest to the location of a previously presented fixation cross on a computer screen; this outcome would determine their pay. We varied the value of the die second closest to the fixation cross to be either higher (i.e., tempting) or lower (i.e., not tempting) than the die closest to the fixation cross. Results of two experiments revealed that in ambiguous settings, people's incorrect responses were self-serving. Tracking participants' eye moveme...
Firm moral judgment deems dishonest acts as categorically wrong, and considers any self-serving j... more Firm moral judgment deems dishonest acts as categorically wrong, and considers any self-serving justification for them as further dishonesty. People, however, commonly use self-serving justifications in order to feel honest even as they behave dishonestly, indicating reduced moral firmness. We test variation in moral firmness by comparing a sample of religious and secular female students. Arguably, religious people's upbringing and ongoing exposure to moral admonitions promote a firm moral approach which should translate into firmer moral judgments in adulthood. Results of a moral judgment experiment supported this proposition: Religious students judged lies more harshly than secular students, and were less influenced by the availability of self-serving justifications. A moral behavior experiment provided support to the notion that moral firmness in judgment may translate to moral firmness in behavior: whereas modest amount of lying was found among the secular students, no evidence for lying was observed among the religious student. Overall, we provide strong evidence for firm moral judgment among female religious students, and weaker evidence for firm moral behavior. We discuss the relation between firm moral judgment and behavior.
Psychological Science, 2014
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2011
Employing a die-under-cup paradigm, we study the extent to which people lie when it is transparen... more Employing a die-under-cup paradigm, we study the extent to which people lie when it is transparently clear they cannot be caught. We asked participants to report the outcome of a private die roll and gain money according to their reports. Results suggest that the degree of lying depends on the extent to which self-justifications are available. Specifically, when people are allowed to roll the die three times to ensure its legitimacy, but only the first roll is supposed to ''count,'' we find evidence that the highest outcome of the three rolls is reported. Eliminating the ability to observe more than one roll reduces lying. Additional results suggest that observing desired counterfactuals, in the form of additional rolls not meant to determine pay, attenuates the degree to which people perceive lies as unethical. People seem to derive value from self-justifications allowing them to lie for money while feeling honest.
Psychological Science, 2011
Approach motivation, a focus on achieving positive outcomes, is related to relative left-hemisphe... more Approach motivation, a focus on achieving positive outcomes, is related to relative left-hemispheric brain activation, which translates to a variety of right-oriented behavioral biases. In two studies, we found that approach-motivated individuals display a right-oriented bias, but only when they are forced to act quickly. In a task in which they had to divide lines into two equal parts, approach-motivated individuals bisected the line at a point farther to the right than avoidance-motivated individuals did, but only when they worked under high time pressure. In our analysis of all Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup penalty shoot-outs, we found that goalkeepers were two times more likely to dive to the right than to the left when their team was behind, a situation that we conjecture induces approach motivation. Because penalty takers shot toward the two sides of the goal equally often, the goalkeepers' right-oriented bias was dysfunctional, allowing more goals to be scored. Directional biases may facilitate group coordination but prove maladaptive in individual settings and interpersonal competition.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology - J APPL SOC PSYCHOL, 2011
This study examined how caregivers' biased perceptions of ability to help traumatized patien... more This study examined how caregivers' biased perceptions of ability to help traumatized patients relates to the caregivers' secondary traumatic stress (STS). There is reason to believe that caregivers overestimate their ability to help and underestimate their vulnerability to develop STS, but it is unclear how such unrealistic optimism relates to STS. The results show that Israeli caregivers working with terror victims believed that their ability to help traumatic patients is superior to their peers' while their likelihood to be negatively affected by such treatment is lower. Beyond the impact of the number of patients treated and caregivers' experience, unrealistic optimism was positively correlated to caregivers' STS. Theoretical and practical implications for those working with traumatized patients are discussed. In a world filled with conflict and terror, an increasing number of individuals are traumatized and both seek and need help to cope with their gru...
Psychological Science, 2012
Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-contr... more Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-control, which indicates that serving self-interest is an automatic tendency. However, evidence also suggests that people cheat to the extent that they can justify their unethical behavior to themselves. To merge these different lines of research, we adopted a dual-system approach that distinguished between the intuitive and deliberative cognitive systems. We suggest that for people to restrict their dishonest behavior, they need to have enough time and no justifications for self-serving unethical behavior. We employed an anonymous die-under-cup task in which participants privately rolled a die and reported the outcome to determine their pay. We manipulated the time available for participants to report their outcome (short vs. ample). The results of two experiments support our prediction, revealing that the dark side of people's automatic self-serving tendency may be overcome when time to decide is ample and private justifications for dishonesty are not available.
Psychological Science, 2012
People often conform to others with whom they associate. Surprisingly, however, little is known a... more People often conform to others with whom they associate. Surprisingly, however, little is known about the possible hormonal mechanisms that may underlie in-group conformity. Here, we examined whether conformity toward one's in-group is altered by oxytocin, a neuropeptide often implicated in social behavior. After administration of either oxytocin or a placebo, participants were asked to provide attractiveness ratings of unfamiliar visual stimuli. While viewing each stimulus, participants were shown ratings of that stimulus provided by both in-group and out-group members. Results demonstrated that on trials in which the ratings of the in-group and out-group were incongruent, the ratings of participants given oxytocin conformed to the ratings of their in-group but not of their out-group. Participants given a placebo did not show this in-group bias. These findings indicate that administration of oxytocin can influence subjective preferences, and they support the view that oxytocin's effects on social behavior are context dependent.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2012
In intergroup competition and conflict, humans benefit from coalitions with strong partners who h... more In intergroup competition and conflict, humans benefit from coalitions with strong partners who help them to protect their in-group and prevail over competing out-groups. Here, we link oxytocin, a neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus, to ally selection in intergroup competition. In a double-blind placebocontrolled experiment, males self-administered oxytocin or placebo, and made selection decisions about six high-threat and six low-threat targets as potential allies in intergroup competition. Males given oxytocin rather than placebo viewed high-threat targets as more useful allies and more frequently selected them into their team than low-threat targets.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011
We are sorry, but NCBI web applications do not support your browser, and may not function properl... more We are sorry, but NCBI web applications do not support your browser, and may not function properly. More information here... ... Proc Natl Acad Sci US A. 2011 March 29; 108(13): E46. ... Author contributions: CKWDD, LLG, GAVK, SS, and MJJH wrote the paper. ... Chen et al. (1) raise several issues with the data and interpretations published in De Dreu et al. (2). We appreciate their constructive remarks. Here, we address their concerns and explain why our data do, in fact, show that oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism. ... For starters, Chen et al. (1) ...
PLoS ONE, 2012
Intergroup conflict is often driven by an individual's motivation to protect oneself and fellow g... more Intergroup conflict is often driven by an individual's motivation to protect oneself and fellow group members against the threat of out-group aggression, including the tendency to pre-empt out-group threat through a competitive approach.
Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 2010
In negotiation, opening offers affect negotiated agreements. Across various negotiation settings,... more In negotiation, opening offers affect negotiated agreements. Across various negotiation settings, negotiators' outcomes are monotonically related to initial offer values (Chertk-
Learned Publishing, 2010
Abstract: At a top psychology journal, Psychological Science (PS), submissions peak during the su... more Abstract: At a top psychology journal, Psychological Science (PS), submissions peak during the summer months. We tested whether this seasonal submission bias decreases the likelihood of a paper being accepted in that period. Month of submission data was obtained for all 575 publications in PS for the period 2003-2006. Whereas submissions to PS were higher in the summer, there was no evidence that most accepted publications were originally submitted in the summer. Thus, contributors submit to PS when the likelihood of ...
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2000
Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-contr... more Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-control, which indicates that serving self-interest is an automatic tendency. However, evidence also suggests that people cheat to the extent that they can justify their unethical behavior to themselves. To merge these different lines of research, we adopted a dual-system approach that distinguished between the intuitive and deliberative cognitive systems. We suggest that for people to restrict their dishonest behavior, they need to have enough time and no justifications for self-serving unethical behavior. We employed an anonymous die-under-cup task in which participants privately rolled a die and reported the outcome to determine their pay. We manipulated the time available for participants to report their outcome (short vs. ample). The results of two experiments support our prediction, revealing that the dark side of people's automatic self-serving tendency may be overcome when time to decide is ample and private justifications for dishonesty are not available.
Psychological science, Jan 15, 2015
To some extent, unethical behavior results from people's limited attention to ethical conside... more To some extent, unethical behavior results from people's limited attention to ethical considerations, which results in an ethical blind spot. Here, we focus on the role of ambiguity in shaping people's ethical blind spots, which in turn lead to their ethical failures. We suggest that in ambiguous settings, individuals' attention shifts toward tempting information, which determines the magnitude of their lies. Employing a novel ambiguous-dice paradigm, we asked participants to report the outcome of the die roll appearing closest to the location of a previously presented fixation cross on a computer screen; this outcome would determine their pay. We varied the value of the die second closest to the fixation cross to be either higher (i.e., tempting) or lower (i.e., not tempting) than the die closest to the fixation cross. Results of two experiments revealed that in ambiguous settings, people's incorrect responses were self-serving. Tracking participants' eye moveme...
Firm moral judgment deems dishonest acts as categorically wrong, and considers any self-serving j... more Firm moral judgment deems dishonest acts as categorically wrong, and considers any self-serving justification for them as further dishonesty. People, however, commonly use self-serving justifications in order to feel honest even as they behave dishonestly, indicating reduced moral firmness. We test variation in moral firmness by comparing a sample of religious and secular female students. Arguably, religious people's upbringing and ongoing exposure to moral admonitions promote a firm moral approach which should translate into firmer moral judgments in adulthood. Results of a moral judgment experiment supported this proposition: Religious students judged lies more harshly than secular students, and were less influenced by the availability of self-serving justifications. A moral behavior experiment provided support to the notion that moral firmness in judgment may translate to moral firmness in behavior: whereas modest amount of lying was found among the secular students, no evidence for lying was observed among the religious student. Overall, we provide strong evidence for firm moral judgment among female religious students, and weaker evidence for firm moral behavior. We discuss the relation between firm moral judgment and behavior.
Psychological Science, 2014
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2011
Employing a die-under-cup paradigm, we study the extent to which people lie when it is transparen... more Employing a die-under-cup paradigm, we study the extent to which people lie when it is transparently clear they cannot be caught. We asked participants to report the outcome of a private die roll and gain money according to their reports. Results suggest that the degree of lying depends on the extent to which self-justifications are available. Specifically, when people are allowed to roll the die three times to ensure its legitimacy, but only the first roll is supposed to ''count,'' we find evidence that the highest outcome of the three rolls is reported. Eliminating the ability to observe more than one roll reduces lying. Additional results suggest that observing desired counterfactuals, in the form of additional rolls not meant to determine pay, attenuates the degree to which people perceive lies as unethical. People seem to derive value from self-justifications allowing them to lie for money while feeling honest.
Psychological Science, 2011
Approach motivation, a focus on achieving positive outcomes, is related to relative left-hemisphe... more Approach motivation, a focus on achieving positive outcomes, is related to relative left-hemispheric brain activation, which translates to a variety of right-oriented behavioral biases. In two studies, we found that approach-motivated individuals display a right-oriented bias, but only when they are forced to act quickly. In a task in which they had to divide lines into two equal parts, approach-motivated individuals bisected the line at a point farther to the right than avoidance-motivated individuals did, but only when they worked under high time pressure. In our analysis of all Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup penalty shoot-outs, we found that goalkeepers were two times more likely to dive to the right than to the left when their team was behind, a situation that we conjecture induces approach motivation. Because penalty takers shot toward the two sides of the goal equally often, the goalkeepers' right-oriented bias was dysfunctional, allowing more goals to be scored. Directional biases may facilitate group coordination but prove maladaptive in individual settings and interpersonal competition.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology - J APPL SOC PSYCHOL, 2011
This study examined how caregivers' biased perceptions of ability to help traumatized patien... more This study examined how caregivers' biased perceptions of ability to help traumatized patients relates to the caregivers' secondary traumatic stress (STS). There is reason to believe that caregivers overestimate their ability to help and underestimate their vulnerability to develop STS, but it is unclear how such unrealistic optimism relates to STS. The results show that Israeli caregivers working with terror victims believed that their ability to help traumatic patients is superior to their peers' while their likelihood to be negatively affected by such treatment is lower. Beyond the impact of the number of patients treated and caregivers' experience, unrealistic optimism was positively correlated to caregivers' STS. Theoretical and practical implications for those working with traumatized patients are discussed. In a world filled with conflict and terror, an increasing number of individuals are traumatized and both seek and need help to cope with their gru...
Psychological Science, 2012
Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-contr... more Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-control, which indicates that serving self-interest is an automatic tendency. However, evidence also suggests that people cheat to the extent that they can justify their unethical behavior to themselves. To merge these different lines of research, we adopted a dual-system approach that distinguished between the intuitive and deliberative cognitive systems. We suggest that for people to restrict their dishonest behavior, they need to have enough time and no justifications for self-serving unethical behavior. We employed an anonymous die-under-cup task in which participants privately rolled a die and reported the outcome to determine their pay. We manipulated the time available for participants to report their outcome (short vs. ample). The results of two experiments support our prediction, revealing that the dark side of people's automatic self-serving tendency may be overcome when time to decide is ample and private justifications for dishonesty are not available.
Psychological Science, 2012
People often conform to others with whom they associate. Surprisingly, however, little is known a... more People often conform to others with whom they associate. Surprisingly, however, little is known about the possible hormonal mechanisms that may underlie in-group conformity. Here, we examined whether conformity toward one's in-group is altered by oxytocin, a neuropeptide often implicated in social behavior. After administration of either oxytocin or a placebo, participants were asked to provide attractiveness ratings of unfamiliar visual stimuli. While viewing each stimulus, participants were shown ratings of that stimulus provided by both in-group and out-group members. Results demonstrated that on trials in which the ratings of the in-group and out-group were incongruent, the ratings of participants given oxytocin conformed to the ratings of their in-group but not of their out-group. Participants given a placebo did not show this in-group bias. These findings indicate that administration of oxytocin can influence subjective preferences, and they support the view that oxytocin's effects on social behavior are context dependent.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2012
In intergroup competition and conflict, humans benefit from coalitions with strong partners who h... more In intergroup competition and conflict, humans benefit from coalitions with strong partners who help them to protect their in-group and prevail over competing out-groups. Here, we link oxytocin, a neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus, to ally selection in intergroup competition. In a double-blind placebocontrolled experiment, males self-administered oxytocin or placebo, and made selection decisions about six high-threat and six low-threat targets as potential allies in intergroup competition. Males given oxytocin rather than placebo viewed high-threat targets as more useful allies and more frequently selected them into their team than low-threat targets.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011
We are sorry, but NCBI web applications do not support your browser, and may not function properl... more We are sorry, but NCBI web applications do not support your browser, and may not function properly. More information here... ... Proc Natl Acad Sci US A. 2011 March 29; 108(13): E46. ... Author contributions: CKWDD, LLG, GAVK, SS, and MJJH wrote the paper. ... Chen et al. (1) raise several issues with the data and interpretations published in De Dreu et al. (2). We appreciate their constructive remarks. Here, we address their concerns and explain why our data do, in fact, show that oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism. ... For starters, Chen et al. (1) ...
PLoS ONE, 2012
Intergroup conflict is often driven by an individual's motivation to protect oneself and fellow g... more Intergroup conflict is often driven by an individual's motivation to protect oneself and fellow group members against the threat of out-group aggression, including the tendency to pre-empt out-group threat through a competitive approach.
Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 2010
In negotiation, opening offers affect negotiated agreements. Across various negotiation settings,... more In negotiation, opening offers affect negotiated agreements. Across various negotiation settings, negotiators' outcomes are monotonically related to initial offer values (Chertk-
Learned Publishing, 2010
Abstract: At a top psychology journal, Psychological Science (PS), submissions peak during the su... more Abstract: At a top psychology journal, Psychological Science (PS), submissions peak during the summer months. We tested whether this seasonal submission bias decreases the likelihood of a paper being accepted in that period. Month of submission data was obtained for all 575 publications in PS for the period 2003-2006. Whereas submissions to PS were higher in the summer, there was no evidence that most accepted publications were originally submitted in the summer. Thus, contributors submit to PS when the likelihood of ...