Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/164678
Title: AT YOUR COMMAND, I SHALL OBEY: THE EFFECTS OF GRATITUDE AND INCENTIVE ON OBEDIENCE TO LIE
Authors: CHIA KA MUN, ELICIA
Keywords: Gratitude
Incentive
Obedience
Social Alignment
Issue Date: 8-Nov-2019
Citation: CHIA KA MUN, ELICIA (2019-11-08). AT YOUR COMMAND, I SHALL OBEY: THE EFFECTS OF GRATITUDE AND INCENTIVE ON OBEDIENCE TO LIE. ScholarBank@NUS Repository.
Abstract: Gratitude is conventionally perceived as a prosocial emotion. Yet, the social alignment function of gratitude suggests that gratitude enhances people’s tendency to align with others, regardless of the outcome (Ng et al., 2017). This study aims to validate the function, hypothesising that gratitude would increase obedience to act unethically compared to neutrality. Furthermore, as incentives can motivate unethical behaviours, this study examines the effect in obedience contexts. High incentive was expected to increase obedience compared to low incentive. Additionally, the possibility of incentive moderating the effect of gratitude on obedience was explored. In a 2 (gratitude; neutral) x 2 (high incentive; low incentive) between-subjects design, participants played a die-rolling game for chances at a lucky draw, before the experimenter commanded them to lie and inflate their actual score. Results revealed that grateful participants reported higher scores than neutral participants, suggesting a higher tendency among grateful people to obey unethical commands. However, high incentive condition participants did not report higher scores than low incentive condition participants. No interaction was found between gratitude and incentive value. Overall, findings support gratitude’s social alignment function, demonstrating that gratitude can also lead to maladaptive outcomes, independent of incentives.
URI: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/164678
Appears in Collections:Bachelor's Theses

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