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Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty

We studied the emotional processes that allow people to balance two competing desires: benefitting from dishonesty and keeping a positive self-image. We recorded physiological arousal (skin conductance and heart rate) during a computer card game in which participants could cheat and fail to report a...

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Autores principales: Pittarello, Andrea, Conte, Beatrice, Caserotti, Marta, Scrimin, Sara, Rubaltelli, Enrico
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5862927/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28409438
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1285-9
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author Pittarello, Andrea
Conte, Beatrice
Caserotti, Marta
Scrimin, Sara
Rubaltelli, Enrico
author_facet Pittarello, Andrea
Conte, Beatrice
Caserotti, Marta
Scrimin, Sara
Rubaltelli, Enrico
author_sort Pittarello, Andrea
collection PubMed
description We studied the emotional processes that allow people to balance two competing desires: benefitting from dishonesty and keeping a positive self-image. We recorded physiological arousal (skin conductance and heart rate) during a computer card game in which participants could cheat and fail to report a certain card when presented on the screen to avoid losing their money. We found that higher skin conductance corresponded to lower cheating rates. Importantly, emotional intelligence regulated this effect; participants with high emotional intelligence were less affected by their physiological reactions than those with low emotional intelligence. As a result, they were more likely to profit from dishonesty. However, no interaction emerged between heart rate and emotional intelligence. We suggest that the ability to manage and control emotions can allow people to overcome the tension between doing right or wrong and license them to bend the rules.
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spelling pubmed-58629272018-03-28 Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty Pittarello, Andrea Conte, Beatrice Caserotti, Marta Scrimin, Sara Rubaltelli, Enrico Psychon Bull Rev Brief Report We studied the emotional processes that allow people to balance two competing desires: benefitting from dishonesty and keeping a positive self-image. We recorded physiological arousal (skin conductance and heart rate) during a computer card game in which participants could cheat and fail to report a certain card when presented on the screen to avoid losing their money. We found that higher skin conductance corresponded to lower cheating rates. Importantly, emotional intelligence regulated this effect; participants with high emotional intelligence were less affected by their physiological reactions than those with low emotional intelligence. As a result, they were more likely to profit from dishonesty. However, no interaction emerged between heart rate and emotional intelligence. We suggest that the ability to manage and control emotions can allow people to overcome the tension between doing right or wrong and license them to bend the rules. Springer US 2017-04-13 2018 /pmc/articles/PMC5862927/ /pubmed/28409438 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1285-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Brief Report
Pittarello, Andrea
Conte, Beatrice
Caserotti, Marta
Scrimin, Sara
Rubaltelli, Enrico
Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty
title Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty
title_full Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty
title_fullStr Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty
title_full_unstemmed Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty
title_short Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty
title_sort emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5862927/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28409438
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1285-9
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