Self Control in Society, Mind, and Brain (Oxford Series in Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience)

575 Pages·2010·7.2 MB·English

by  Ran Hassin

Self Control in Society, Mind, and Brain
OXFORD SERIES IN SOCIAL COGNITION AND SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE
Series Editor
Ran R. Hassin
Editorial Board
Mahzarin Banaji
John A. Bargh
John Gabrieli
David Hamilton
Elizabeth A. Phelps
Yaacov Trope
The New Unconscious
Edited by Ran R. Hassin, James S. Uleman, and John A. Bargh
Oxford Handbook of Human Action
Edited by Ezequiel Morsella, John A. Bargh, and Peter M. Gollwitzer
Forthcoming Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of the
Social Mind
Edited by Alexander Todorov, Susan T. Fiske, and Deborah Prentice
Forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience
Edited by Jean Decety and John T. Cacioppo
Self Control in Society,
Mind, and Brain
Edited by
Ran R. Hassin
Kevin N. Ochsner
Yaacov Trope
1
2010
3
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CIP data on fi le
ISBN 978-0-19-539138-1
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PREFACE
How do we—societies and individuals alike—(sometimes) manage to act in line with our high pri-
ority goals when we are faced with tempting yet confl icting alternatives? Put diff erently, how do
we (sometimes) resolve a confl ict between super ordinate, global goal, and subordinate, local one
in favor of the former? Self-control dilemmas of this kind can be found in many contexts and may
be described at many levels of analysis. Examples include the dilemmas faced by groups fostering
cooperation among group members, when defection is more benefi cial for each individual; dieters
resisting a tempting cake in order to stay on their diet, and the cognitive system trading off speed for
accuracy in confl ict tasks like the Stroop.
All of the aforementioned dilemmas have a common structure: A goal that is higher in one’s hier-
archy confl icts with a lower level goal. Given this goal hierarchy, one of the hallmarks of self control
confl icts is that they have a correct, or desired answer. Although one is tempted to eat the cake, the
“correct” behavior of a dieter is to refrain from eating it; although the individual is tempted to defect,
one knows that the “correct” social behavior is to cooperate; and, lastly, while one is tempted to
respond quickly in an incongruent Stroop trial, one knows that the “correct” answer is to name the
ink. Self-control success is responding in line with one’s higher order goals, and self-control failure is
responding in line with one’s lower order goals. Th is common structure is the essence of self-control
and the theme underlying the present volume on the process of self-control, its antecedents and con-
sequences for individuals and societies.
Th is book represents social, cognitive, and neuroscientifi c approaches to the question of self-con-
trol. Our goal was to bring together multiple perspectives on these kinds of dilemmas, connecting
recent work in cognitive, and social psychology with recent advances in cognitive and social neu-
roscience. Th e book emphasizes integrative, multi-disciplinary approaches to self-control. It off ers
a single reference volume comprising contributions from leading researchers within various allied
disciplines.
Th e book consists of three sections: the Neural, the Mental, and the Social. Th e Neural section
looks at brain processes that underlie self control attempts and that speak directly to the level of the
mental. Th e Mental is the book’s anchor: it comprises cognitive and social-cognitive contributions,
which examine within-individual self-control processes at all levels; from low level attention, to
motivation, and motivational systems. Th e Social section looks at group processes, broadly defi ned,
and examines how groups and societies (attempt to) resolve confl icts between their global goals and
the individual’s self interest.
We hope that by crossing these disciplinary boundaries within a single volume, the book will
promote cross-talk between theoretical and data-driven approaches at various levels of analyses. We
v
vi PREFACE
believe that this will help improve our understanding of one of the most crucial aspects of human
behavior; our capacity to overcome the infl uence of local, short-term concerns, and act in line with
our long-term, overarching goals.
Before you turn the page to begin reading this book, we wish to thank the authors for contribut-
ing a set of deep, thorough, and thought provoking chapters. We would also like to thank Catharine
Carlin, senior editor at OUP, for her assistance and support throughout this project. Ran Hassin
would like to dedicate this book to the memory of Eliahu Hassin, a father, a guide, an inspiration,
and a dear friend.
Ran R. Hassin
Kevin N. Ochsner
Yaacov Trope
CONTENTS
Contributors xi
NEURAL
1. Anterior Cingulate Cortex Contributions to Cognitive and Emotional
Processing: A General Purpose Mechanism for Cognitive Control and
Self-Control 3
Marie K. Krug and Cameron S. Carter
2. Damaged Self, Damaged Control: A Component Process Analysis
of the Effects of Frontal Lobe Damage on Human Decision Making 27
Lesley K. Fellows
3. Working Hard or Hardly Working for those Rose-colored Glasses:
Behavioral and Neural Evidence for the Automatic Nature of
Unrealistically Positive Self-Perceptions 38
Jennifer S. Beer
4. Control in the Regulation of Intergroup Bias 49
David M. Amodio and Patricia G. Devine
5. Integrating Research on Self-Control across Multiple Levels of Analysis:
Insights from Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 76
Ethan Kross and Kevin N. Ochsner
6. Using the Stroop Task to Study Emotion Regulation 93
Jason Buhle, Tor Wager, and Ed Smith
7. Motivational Infl uences on Cognitive Control: A Cognitive
Neuroscience Perspective 114
Hannah S. Locke and Todd S. Braver
8. The Common Neural Basis of Exerting Self-Control
in Multiple Domains 141
Jessica R. Cohen and Matthew D. Lieberman
vii
viii CONTENTS
MENTAL
9. Working Memory Capacity: Self-Control Is (in) the Goal 163
James M. Broadway, Th omas S. Redick, and Randall W. Engle
10. The Dynamic Control of Human Actions 174
Florian Waszak, Anne Springer, and Wolfgang Prinz
11. Task Switching: Mechanisms Underlying
Rigid vs. Flexible Self-Control 202
Nachshon Meiran
12. Unconscious Infl uences of Attitudes and Challenges
to Self-Control 221
Deborah L. Hall and B. Keith Payne
13. Self-Control Over Automatic Associations 243
Karen Gonsalkorale, Jeff rey W. Sherman, and Th omas J. Allen
14. Perish the Forethought: Premeditation Engenders Misperceptions
of Personal Control 260
Carey K. Morewedge, Kurt Gray, and Daniel M. Wegner
15. The Power of Planning: Self-Control by Effective Goal-striving 279
Peter M. Gollwitzer, Caterina Gawrilow, and Gabriele Oettingen
16. Unpacking the Self-Control Dilemma and Its Modes of Resolution 297
Arie W. Kruglanski and Catalina Kőpetz
17. Confl ict and Control at Different Levels of Self-Regulation 312
Abigail A. Scholer and E. Tory Higgins
18. Getting Our Act Together: Toward a General Model of Self-Control 335
Eran Magen and James J. Gross
19. Implicit Control of Stereotype Activation 354
Gordon B. Moskowitz and Peizhong Li
20. Ego Depletion and the Limited Resource Model of Self-Control 375
Nicole L. Mead, Jessica L. Alquist, and Roy F. Baumeister
21. Walking the Line between Goals and Temptations: Asymmetric
Effects of Counteractive Control 389
Ayelet Fishbach and Benjamin A. Converse
22. Seeing the Big Picture: A Construal Level Analysis of Self-Control 408
Kentaro Fujita, Yaacov Trope, and Nira Liberman
23. From Stimulus Control to Self-Control: Toward an Integrative
Understanding of the Processes Underlying Willpower 428
Ethan Kross and Walter Mischel
CONTENTS ix
SOCIAL
24. Self-Control in Groups 449
John M. Levine, Kira M. Alexander, and Th omas Hansen
25. Justice as Social Self Control 473
Tom R. Tyler
26. System Justifi cation and the Disruption of Environmental
Goal-Setting: A Self-Regulatory Perspective 490
Irina Feygina, Rachel E. Goldsmith, and John T. Jost
27. Teleological Behaviorism and the Problem of Self-Control 506
Howard Rachlin
Author Index 523
Subject Index 543