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Is he important to me? Source memory advantage for personally relevant cheaters
1Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Fortstraße 7, D-76829, Landau, Germany. kroneisen@uni-landau.de.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|July 29, 2017
Summary
This study on reciprocal altruism found that people remember cheaters more accurately, especially when the cheating is highly relevant. Memory for trustworthy individuals was also enhanced, suggesting a flexible information processing system.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Reciprocal altruism theory suggests a cognitive module for detecting cheaters.
- Prior research indicates a memory advantage for cheater faces over cooperator faces.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate memory for social-exchange relevant information.
- To examine how behavior relevance influences memory for faces and associated actions.
Main Methods:
- Participants viewed faces with descriptions of cheating, trustworthy, or neutral behaviors.
- Behaviors varied in relevance (high/low) to a student population.
- A multinomial model differentiated discrimination, source memory, and guessing biases.
Main Results:
- A source memory advantage was observed for high-relevance cheaters.
- Enhanced source memory was also found for trustworthy individuals (both low and high relevance).
Conclusions:
- Results support a flexible cognitive mechanism prioritizing exchange-relevant information.
- This system adapts to the relative significance of social information, rather than solely focusing on cheaters.
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