title: Smooth criminal: convicted rule-breakers show reduced cognitive conflict during deliberate rule violations.
abstract: Classic findings on conformity and obedience document a strong and automatic drive of human agents to follow any type of rule or social norm. At the same time, most individuals tend to violate rules on occasion, and such deliberate rule violations have recently been shown to yield cognitive conflict for the rule-breaker. These findings indicate persistent difficulty to suppress the rule representation, even though rule violations were studied in a controlled experimental setting with neither gains nor possible sanctions for violators. In the current study, we validate these findings by showing that convicted criminals, i.e., individuals with a history of habitual and severe forms of rule violations, can free themselves from such cognitive conflict in a similarly controlled laboratory task. These findings support an emerging view that aims at understanding rule violations from the perspective of the violating agent rather than from the perspective of outside observer.
authors: LEAD Graduate School and Research Network, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.|Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Aiste
authors: A
authors: Jusyte
authors: Institute of Psychology III, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany. roland.pfister@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors: Roland
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4429-1052
authors: R
authors: Pfister
authors: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Sarah V
authors: SV
authors: Mayer
authors: Institute of Psychology III, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.|Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors: Katharina A
authors: KA
authors: Schwarz
authors: Institute of Psychology III, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Wirth
authors: Institute of Psychology III, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.
authors: Wilfried
authors: W
authors: Kunde
authors: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Schönenberg
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012925:Social Conformity