Abstract
Two pilot and six studies indicated that poor self-control causes people to violate social norms and rules that are effortful to follow. Lower trait self-control was associated with a greater willingness to take ethical risks and use curse words. Participants who completed an initial self-control task that reduced the capacity for self-control used more curse words and were more willing to take ethical risks than participants who completed a neutral task. Poor self-control was also associated with violating explicit rules given by the experimenter. Depleting self-control resources in a self-control exercise caused participants subsequently to talk when they had been instructed to remain silent. Low trait self-control and poor performance on a behavioral measure of self-control (the Stroop task) predicted poor compliance following experimental instructions over a 2-week span. Poor self-control thus undermines adherence to some social rules and regulations, therefore possibly contributing to a broad variety of social ills.
Highlights
The capacity to follow rules and regulations is far more advanced among humans than among any other species (e.g., Baumeister, 2005)
We examined whether depletion influenced willingness to engage in risks more generally, as assessed by the 32-item measure of non-ethical risks on the Risk Taking Behaviors Scale (RTBS)
This provides some evidence that the effect of low self-control upon risk taking may have been specific to ethical risk taking rather than to risk taking in general
Summary
The capacity to follow rules and regulations is far more advanced among humans than among any other species (e.g., Baumeister, 2005). Without this vital capacity, modern society would cease to function in any meaningful form. Adherence to social regulations (e.g., norms, morals, and laws) seems especially important, bestowing numerous benefits on members of society collectively and individually. People oftentimes violate norms and regulations, sometimes with devastating consequences (e.g., death, rape, addiction, prison). Understanding why people violate social regulations offers great promise for alleviating numerous social ills and increasing life satisfaction. The current work examined one potentially important reason that people fail to follow social regulations
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