The Influence Of College Students Ego-Depletion And Responsibility On Third-party Altruism Under Unfair Situation

Third-party altruistic behavior is of great significance to the maintenance of fairness norms in individual social interaction.When individuals observe unfair events,altruistic intervention will harm their own interests,so self-control is often needed to participate in the psychological process.According to the Strength Model of Self-Control,individuals need limited psychological resources to execute self-control behaviors.When resources are consumed,they will be in a state of self depletion for a short time,leading to the decline of third-party altruistic behaviors.However,the after effect of ego depletion in third-party altruistic behavior is not inevitable.Previous studies on the boundary conditions of after effect of ego depletion mainly focus on stable and difficult to change personal traits,and pay less attention to the important role of situation.Therefore,it is necessary to further explore the ways and methods to boost third-party altruistic behavior in the state of depletion.In view of the above,this research takes college students as the participates,and through two experiments,aims to explore the after effect of ego depletion of third-party altruistic behavior,and tries to find an effective intervention way to alleviate the after effect of self depletion from the perspective of situations,and deepen the relevant research on the impact of ego depletion on third-party altruistic behavior.Experiment 1 were conducted to investigate whether there is a ego depletion after effect in the third-party altruistic behavior.Experiment 1 conducted a 2(ego depletion: high,low)×2(degree of unfairness: high,low)mixed experimental design of two factors.The “Stroop” task was used to manipulate the level of ego depletion,the reaction time of individuals in unfair situations to reject unfair distribution and the amount of tokens used to compensate or punish were used as the measurement indicators of third-party altruistic behavior.The study confirmed the Strength Model of Self-Control and the Inequity Aversion Model,and the ego depletion after effects in third-party altruistic behavior.Experiment 2 were conducted to investigate whether responsibility priming can change the ego depletion after effect of third-party altruistic behavior.Experiment 2 conducted a 2(ego depletion: high,low)×2(responsibility priming state: responsibility priming,non priming)x 2(degree of unfairness: high,low)mixed experimental design of three factors.The “Stroop” task was used to manipulate the level of ego depletion,the “accountability” task was used to manipulate the level of responsibility,the reaction time of individuals in unfair situations to reject unfair distribution and the amount of tokens used to compensate or punish were used as the measurement indicators of third-party altruistic behavior.The study again confirmed the Strength Model of Self-Control and the Inequity Aversion Model,and the activation of responsibility in the situation can promote the dominant deliberative system of high ego depletion group,thereby promoting their third-party altruistic behavior.From the perspective of Strength Model of Self-Control and Dual-system model,this study further explained the after effects of ego depletion of the third-party altruistic behavior.The conclusions were as follows: Firstly,the intuitive system is dominant when the individual is in a state of high ego depletion;Secondly,as a result of individual deliberative processing,the third-party altruistic behavior is restricted by self-control resources,and the high ego depletion individuals have a higher retention tendency due to the temporary excessive consumption of psychological resources;Thirdly,the ego depletion after effect of third-party altruistic behavior is moderated by the activation of sense of responsibility.The third-party individuals who arouse the sense of responsibility show the mitigation effect of ego depletion after effect,which is not significant in the individuals with acquaintance priming state.The sense of responsibility activation effectively improves the third-party altruistic behavior with high ego depletion and promotes the harmonious and stable development of society.