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Free keywords:
pupil dilation; eye tracking; dishonesty; justifications; bounded ethicality
Abstract:
According to self-maintenance theory, people notice their dishonest acts and thus experience ethical dissonance between their
misconduct and their positive moral self. In this view, dishonesty is facilitated by justifications that redefine moral boundaries. By
contrast, the bounded ethicality approach suggests that biased perception prevents people from becoming aware of their dishonesty.
We tested the key process assumptions behind these accounts using pupillary responses and fixation data and found physiological
evidence for both kinds of mechanisms. In particular, physiological arousal increased at the initial stage of cheating responses. This
suggests that people are on some level aware of their wrongdoings. At the same time, however, we found attentional biases that can
reduce the likelihood for detecting potentially disadvantageous information. We suggest that dishonest acts come at the internal cost
of increased tension, which people aim to avoid by pre-emptive biased processing as well as post hoc justifications.
