Enabling or Limiting Cognitive Flexibility? Evidence of Demand for Moral Commitment†

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Saccardo, Silvia; Serra-Garcia, Marta
• 署名单位: Carnegie Mellon University; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201333
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 396-429
• 关键词: SELECTIVE ATTENTION; Self-deception; public-service; INFORMATION; JUDGMENT; blind; ACCOUNTABILITY

摘要

Moral behavior is more prevalent when individuals cannot easily distort their beliefs self-servingly. Do individuals seek to limit or enable their ability to distort beliefs? How do these choices affect behavior? Experiments with over 9,000 participants show prefer-ences are heterogeneous-30 percent of participants prefer to limit belief distortion, while over 40 percent prefer to enable it, even if costly. A random assignment mechanism reveals that being assigned to the preferred environment is necessary for curbing or enabling self-serving behavior. Third parties can anticipate these effects, sug-gesting some sophistication about the cognitive constraints to belief distortion. (JEL C91, D82, D83, D91)