Self-Persuasion When Incentivized to Persuade Other People: Self-deception or Not? (Public) ($) PREVIEW
General Details
Project Self-Persuasion when Incentivized to Persuade Other PeopleStudy ID sspp-2024-0003-v1
Study Title Self-Persuasion When Incentivized to Persuade Other People: Self-deception or Not?
Authors Yunhao Zhang, David Rand
Completion Time 10 Minutes
Close Date (UTC) March 1, 2024
Discipline Psychology
Field Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Country Online (limited countries), United States
Abstract
Research has shown that when individuals are incentivized to persuade others, they often adjust their own beliefs to match their persuasion objectives - that is, they engage in "self-persuasion". A prominent explanation for this effect involves self-deception (e.g. von Hippel & Trivers 2011): By this account, it is easier to persuade others when you yourself believe the claim (e.g. avoiding the cognitive dissonance or moral qualms that arise when trying to convince others of a claim you do not yourself believe). Thus, people engage in self-deception in order to more effectively persuade others. Although this explanation is popular, it remains empirically untested. Our study aims to test this explanation. In a between subjects experiment, we compare the magnitude of two effects: the impact on one's beliefs and actions when they are (2) incentivized to compose persuasive messages to persuade others to support or oppose a social issue versus (2) incentivized to simply summarize arguments that support or oppose the social issue.
Incentive Details
Incentive Type Based on forecast accuracyCalculation Method Discrete: Fixed payment if forecast is within bounds
Recipient Pool Everyone receives the incentives
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