Objective
Every day, everywhere, people make unethical choices ranging from minor selfish lies to massive frauds, with dramatic individual and societal costs.
Embodied cognition theories posit that even seemingly abstract processes (like grammar) may be biased by the body-related signals used for building and maintaining self-consciousness, the fundamental experience of owning a body (ownership) and being the author of an action (agency), that is at the basis of self-other distinction.
Applying this framework to morality, we hypothesize that strengthening or weakening participants’ bodily self-consciousness towards virtual avatars or real others will influence dishonesty in real, virtual, and web-based interactions.
To test this hypothesis, we will measure:
i) individual dishonesty after modifying body ownership (e.g. by changing the appearance of the virtual body) and agency (e.g. by changing the temporal synchrony between participant’s and avatar’s actions) over an avatar through which decisions are made;
ii) intergroup dishonesty after inducing inter-individual sharing of body self-consciousness (e.g. blur self-other distinction via facial visuo-tactile stimulation);
iii) individual and intergroup dishonesty by manipulating exteroceptive (e.g. the external features of a virtual body) or interoceptive (e.g. changing the degree of synchronicity between participant’s and avatar/real person’s breathing rhythm) bodily inputs.
Dishonesty will be assessed through novel ecological tasks based on virtual reality and web-based interactions. Behavioural (e.g. subjective reports, kinematics), autonomic (e.g. heartbeat, thermal imaging) and brain (e.g. EEG, TMS, lesion analyses) measures of dishonesty will be recorded in healthy and clinical populations.
Our person-based, embodied approach to dishonesty complements cross-cultural, large-scale, societal investigations and may inspire new strategies for contrasting dishonesty and other unethical behaviours.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2017-ADG
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00185 Roma
Italy
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