title: The Impact of Social Pressure and Monetary Incentive on Cognitive Control.
abstract: We compare the effects of two prominent organizational control mechanisms-social pressure and monetary incentive-on cognitive control. Cognitive control underlies the human ability to regulate thoughts and actions in the pursuit of behavioral goals. Previous studies show that monetary incentives can contribute to goal-oriented behavior by activating proactive control. There is, however, much less evidence of how social pressure affects cognitive control and task performance. In a within-subject experimental design, we tested 47 subjects performing the AX-CPT task to compare the activation of cognitive control modes under social pressure and monetary incentive beyond mere instructions to perform better. Our results indicate that instructing participants to improve their performance on its own leads to a significant shift from a reactive to a proactive control mode and that both social pressure and monetary incentive further enhance performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Accounting and Auditing, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ličen
authors.affiliation: Department of Accounting and Control, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Mind and Brain Lab, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Grega
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Repovš
authors.affiliation: Department of Accounting and Auditing, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Sergeja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Slapničar
keywords: AX-CPT; cognitive control; monetary incentives; proactive index; social pressure