The Influence Of Conventional Imitation And Instrumental Imitation On Deceptive Behavior

Individuals construct and internalize moral standards by observing and imitating group members.As a member of the group,individuals learn the values,social norms,and instrumental skills of their communities through imitation in practice.Conventional imitation refers to the more accurately imitation by which individuals learn the normative behaviors of group through imitation.Instrumental learning refers to the less accurately imitation by which individuals learn the technical behavior of group through imitation.Among the cognitive factors that influence moral intention and moral behavior,moral absolutism emphasizes the universal applicability of moral standards,and initiating individual's moral absolutism can effectively reduce their unethical intentions.The imitation goals and imitation accuracy of the conventional imitation and instrumental imitation are different,which leads to differences in individual cognitive and behavior results.Does this difference affect the moral behavior of individuals by affecting their moral absolutism? This study examines the effects of conventional imitation and instrumental imitation on deceptive behavior and explores the mediating role of moral absolutism by initiating individual's conventional imitation or instrumental imitation,using different spontaneous deception tasks,and combined with related questionnaires and scales through three experiments.Study 1 examines the impact of conventional imitation and instrumental imitation on deceptive behavior,selected 130 college students as participants,and used the between-subjects design to examine the behavior of the participants in the spontaneous deception paradigm under the conditions of conventional imitation and instrumental imitation.The study found that after conventional imitation,the individual's deceptive behavior is less than after instrumental imitation.Study 2 examines the mediating role of moral absolutism in conventional imitation and instrumental imitation affecting deceptive behavior,which is divided into Experiment 2a and Experiment 2b.Experiment 2a selected 168 college students as participants,and used the between-subjects design to examine the direction of conventional imitation and instrumental imitation to influence deceptive behavior,and further explore the mediating role of moral absolutism.The study found that the moralabsolutism score is the highest after conventional imitation,and the deception is the least,that is,moral absolutism plays a mediating role in conventional imitation and instrumental imitation affecting deceptive behavior.Experiment 2b selected 131 students as participants,and used the between-subjects design to examine the influence of moral absolutism on deceptive behavior.The study found that after using mixed-phrase tasks to initiate individual's moral absolutism positions,their deceptive behavior is significantly lower than the control condition,which means that moral absolutism effectively reduces the individual's deceptive behavior.Combining the two studies,the following conclusions are obtained:(1)the individual's deceptive behavior is significantly reduced in the conventional imitation condition than in the instrumental imitation condition;(2)the moral absolutism plays a mediating role in the process of conventional imitation and instrumental imitation affecting deceptive behavior,conventional imitation reduces individual's deceptive behavior by promoting moral absolutism.This study enriches relevant research in the field of moral decision.First,by examining the effects of conventional imitation and instrumental imitation on deceptive behaviors,to explore how different imitation affect unethical behaviors.Secondly,from the perspective of individual moral cognitive factors,investigate the mediating role of moral absolutism in conventional imitation reducing deceptive behavior,further exploring the individual cognitive factors that conventional imitation affects deceptive behavior.In addition,this study has certain practical significance.The research results provide reference for family fostering and school education,guide the conventional imitation and instrumental imitation of adolescents in an appropriate way,construct their moral absolutism positions,and further reduce their deception behavior in the daily life.