Be Strong Enough to Say No: Self-Affirmation Increases Rejection to Unfair Offers

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology Vol. 7; p. 1824
• Main Authors: Gu, Ruolei, Yang, Jing, Shi, Yuanyuan, Luo, Yi, Luo, Yu L L, Cai, Huajian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 22.11.2016
• Subjects: event-related potential (ERP); fairness; Psychology; self-affirmation; social decision-making; social rejection; fairness; P3; self-affirmation; social decision-making; social rejection; event-related potential; ultimatum game

We propose that self-affirmation may endow people more psychological resources to buffer against the negative influence of rejecting unfair offers in the classic ultimatum game (UG) and further lead to a stronger tendency to reject those offers. We tested this possibility by conducting an event-rela...