Burdens of non-conformity: Motor execution reveals cognitive conflict during deliberate rule violations

作者：Pfister Roland; Wirth Robert; Schwarz Katharina A; Steinhauser Marco; Kunde Wilfried

来源：Cognition, 2016, 147: 93-99.

DOI：10.1016/j.cognition.2015.11.009

• Rule violation
• Rule representation
• Movement trajectories

Rule compliance is pivotal for the regulation of social behavior. Still, humans deliberately violate rules at times - be it for personal reasons or for a higher good. Whereas previous research has studied the preconditions and consequences of rule violations, essentially nothing is known about the cognitive processes right at the moment a rule violation takes place. Here we show that merely labeling an action as rule violation induces substantial conflict between rule violation and compliance, as revealed by participants' bias towards rule -complying motor actions. Moreover, conflict that comes with violating a rule was much stronger than conflict that comes with following an alternative rule, even if both decisions result in the same observable behavior. These observations open a new theoretical perspective on rule violation behavior, shifting the focus toward the cognitive processes operating during the very act of rule violation.

• 出版日期2016-2