The cognitive basis of social behavior: cognitive reflection overrides antisocial but not always prosocial motives

Brice Corgnet, Antonio Espín and Roberto Hernán-González
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Roberto Hernán-González: Granada Lab of Behavioral Economics (GLoBE), Universidad de Granada and Business School, University of Nottingham
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Roberto Hernán González

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: Even though human social behavior has received considerable scientific attention in the last decades, its cognitive underpinnings are still poorly understood. Applying a dual-process framework to the study of social preferences, we show in two studies that individuals with a more reflective/deliberative cognitive style, as measured by scores on the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), are more likely to make choices consistent with “mild” altruism in simple non-strategic decisions. Such choices increase social welfare by increasing the other person’s payoff at very low or no cost for the individual. The choices of less reflective individuals (i.e. those who rely more heavily on intuition), on the other hand, are more likely to be associated with either egalitarian or spiteful motives. We also identify a negative link between reflection and choices characterized by “strong” altruism, but this result holds only in Study 2. Moreover, we provide evidence that the relationship between social preferences and CRT scores is not driven by general intelligence. We discuss how our results can reconcile some previous conflicting findings on the cognitive basis of social behavior.

Keywords: dual-process; reflection; intuition; social preferences; altruism; spitefulness; prosocial behavior; antisocial behavior; inequality aversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 D87 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-mfd, nep-neu and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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Working Paper: The cognitive basis of social behavior: cognitive reflection overrides antisocial but not always prosocial motives (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:15-04

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