Abstract
Background: Differences in descriptions can influence people's evaluations and behaviors. A previous study by Bryan and colleagues suggested that subtle linguistic differences in ethical reminders can differentially prevent readers' unethical behavior. The present study tried to replicate the previous finding in the Japanese context (Experiment 1); additionally, we explored the influence of unfamiliar Japanese instruction words that captured participants' attention (Experiment 2). Methods: In two online experiments, participants were asked to make 10 coin-tosses and report the number of "heads" results, which would indicate the amount of money that they could earn. In Experiment 1, we analyzed the difference in the number of "heads" results as reported by 768 participants under three conditions with different instructions ("Don't cheat" vs. "Don't be a cheater" vs. baseline as a control). In Experiment 2, we conducted an extended experiment with an additional task in which more attention was directed toward the text. Results: In Experiment 1, we successfully replicated the results of the original experiment. The results of Experiment 2 showed no evidence that the results in Experiment 1 were influenced by attentional factors. Conclusions: In conclusion, the results of the present study supported the hypothesis that self-identity-related words of moral reminder curb unethical behaviors more effectively. Stage 1 report: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20183.4.
Highlights
IntroductionI find unclear whether the statement "In general, we believe that highlighting a self-identity word..." at the beginning of the second paragraph is an especial belief of the authors or an argument
I still think that the storyline could be improved a bit
We aimed to test whether the lower levels of attention caused by a familiar instruction (“Don’t cheat”) in the “cheating” condition reduced the effectiveness of preventing unethical behavior in our Experiment 1
Summary
I find unclear whether the statement "In general, we believe that highlighting a self-identity word..." at the beginning of the second paragraph is an especial belief of the authors or an argument Maybe it could suit better at the end of the paragraph "According to Bryan et al (2011)...". Reply: In the second paragraph, we wanted to state how the self-identity influences ethical behaviors through the moral core of a person. This topic was discussed in Bryan et al (2013) and it makes sense to put it at the end of the sixth paragraph of the introduction as your suggestion.
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