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

Silvia Saccardo and Marta Serra-Garcia

American Economic Review, 2023, vol. 113, issue 2, 396-429

Abstract: 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 preferences 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, suggesting some sophistication about the cognitive constraints to belief distortion.

JEL-codes: C91 D82 D83 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201333

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