title: Burdens of non-conformity: Motor execution reveals cognitive conflict during deliberate rule violations.
abstract: Rule compliance is pivotal for the regulation of social behavior. Still, humans deliberately violate rules at times - be it for personal reasons or for a higher good. Whereas previous research has studied the preconditions and consequences of rule violations, essentially nothing is known about the cognitive processes right at the moment a rule violation takes place. Here we show that merely labeling an action as rule violation induces substantial conflict between rule violation and compliance, as revealed by participants' bias towards rule-complying motor actions. Moreover, conflict that comes with violating a rule was much stronger than conflict that comes with following an alternative rule, even if both decisions result in the same observable behavior. These observations open a new theoretical perspective on rule violation behavior, shifting the focus toward the cognitive processes operating during the very act of rule violation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany. Electronic address: roland.pfister@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pfister
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany; Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Katharina A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.affiliation: Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Ostenstraße 25, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steinhauser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kunde
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Movement trajectories; Rule representation; Rule violation