No good deed goes unquestioned: Cynical reconstruals maintain belief in the power of self-interest

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Volumn 47, Issue 6, 2011, Pages 1207-1213

  Critcher, Clayton R ^a   Dunning, David ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b Cornell University ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

Attribution; Belief perseverance; Charitable giving; Cynicism; Person perception; Self interest

Indexed keywords

EID: 80051910303     PISSN: 00221031     EISSN: 10960465     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.001     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. Anderson C.A. Implicit personality theories and empirical data: Biased assimilation, belief perseverance and change, and covariation detection sensitivity. Social Cognition 1995, 13:25-48.
2. Becker G. The economic approach to human behavior. The economic approach to human behavior 1976, 3-14. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. G. Becker (Ed.).
3. Chapman L.J., Chapman J.P. Illusory correlation as an obstacle to the use of valid psychodiagnostic signs. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1969, 74:271-280.
4. Cosmides L. The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition 1989, 31:187-276.
5. Cosmides L., Tooby J., Fiddick L., Bryant G.A. Detecting cheaters. TRENDS in Cognitive Science 2005, 9:505-506.
6. Fein S. Effects of suspicion on attributional thinking and the correspondence bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1996, 70:1164-1184.
7. Fein S., McCloskey A.L., Tomlinson T.M. Can the jury disregard that information? The use of suspicion to reduce the prejudicial effects of pretrial publicity and inadmissible testimony. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 1997, 23:1215-1226.
8. Fetchenhauer D., Dunning D. Do people trust too much or too little?. Journal of Economic Psychology 2009, 30:263-276.
9. Fetchenhauer D., Dunning D. Why so cynical? Asymmetric feedback underlies misguided skepticism in the trustworthiness of others. Psychological Science 2010, 21:189-193.
10. Holmes J.G., Miller D.T., Lerner M.J. Committing altruism under the cloak of self-interest: The exchange fiction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2002, 38:144-151.
11. Kintz B.L. College student attitudes about telling lies. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 1977, 10:490-492.
12. Lord C., Ross L., Lepper M. Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1979, 37:2098-2109.
13. Miller D. The norm of self-interest. The American Psychologist 1999, 54:1053-1060.
14. Miller D.T., Ratner R.K. The disparity between the actual and assumed power of self-interest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1998, 74:53-62.
15. Mischel W., Ebbesen E.B., Zeiss A.M. Determinants of selective memory about the self. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1976, 44:92-103.
16. Prentice D.A., Miller D.T. Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1993, 64:243-256.
17. Ratner R., Miller D. The norm of self-interest and its effects on social action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2001, 81:5-16.
18. Stonesifer P. The 2009 Slate 60: The largest American charitable contributions of the year [Electronic version]. Slate 2010, Retrieved April 21, 2011, from, February 8. http://www.slate.com/id/2243495.
19. Swedborg R. Economics and sociology 1990, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
20. Wason P.C. Realism and rationality in the selection task. Thinking and reasoning: Psychological approaches 1983, 44-75. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. J. Evans (Ed.).
21. Wenzel M. Misperceptions of social norms about tax compliance: From theory to intervention. Journal of Economic Psychology 2005, 26:862-883.
22. Ybarra O., Stephan W.G., Schaberg L. Misanthropic memory for the behavior of group members. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2000, 26:1515-1525.