Repeating the Past: Prevention Focus Motivates Repetition, Even for Unethical Decisions

• Published in: Psychological science Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 179 - 187
• Main Authors: Zhang, Shu, Cornwell, James F. M., Higgins, E. Tory
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-01-2014; Sage Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adult; Anagrams; Biological and medical sciences; Business ethics; Cheating; Decision making; Decision Making - physiology; Economic regulation; Ethical behavior; Ethics; Female; Forecasts; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Miscellaneous; Morality; Morals; Motivation; Motivation - physiology; Motivation research; Personality psychology; Prevention; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social ethics; Social psychology; Young Adult; slippery slope; prevention focus; ethics; regulatory focus; morality; motivation; Human; Prevention; Ethics; Motivation; Moral attitude; Experimental study; Moral science; Repetition
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797613502363

Prevention-focused individuals are motivated to maintain the status quo. Given this, we predicted that individuals with a strong prevention focus, either as a chronic predisposition or situationally induced, would treat their initial decision on how to behave on a first task as the status quo and would thus be motivated to repeat that decision on a subsequent task—even for decisions that were ethically questionable. Results from five studies supported this prediction in multiple ethical domains: whether or not to overstate performance (Studies 1, 2a, and 2b), whether or not to disclose disadvantageous facts (Study 3), and whether or not to pledge a donation (Study 4). The prevention-repetition effect was observed both when the initial and subsequent decisions were in the same domain (Studies 1–3) and when they were in different domains (Study 4). Alternative accounts for this effect, such as justification for the initial decision and preference for consistency, were ruled out (Study 2b).