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Numerous studies conducted in the past decade have presented the link between self-reflection and

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Numerous studies conducted in the past decade have presented the link between self-reflection and people’s behaviour. In particular, Gino and Mogilner (2014) found that priming people to think about time, rather than money, affected them in a way that would cause them to reflect on who they are, and thus discourages them to participate in unethical behaviour (cheating on the required task). However, after conducting further research, Gino and Mogilner’s findings (2014) appear to be inconclusive. This is due to the possibility that the operationalisation of the concepts of self-reflection, time, money and morality and therefore, the methodology of the study, have not been applied appropriately. Certain demographic variables have also caused …show more content…

In Gino and Mogilner’s (2014) study, cheating on the required task was considered unethical behaviour. According to Jones (1991) however, unethical behaviour involves illegal and immoral acts to the larger community, which therefore have damaging effects. Therefore, cheating on the required task in Gino and Mogilner’s (2014) study may not be applicable to the real world as real world cheating due to the fact that it is not illegal. For example, Gallupe and Baron (2014) conducted an experiment which studies the effects of morality, self-control and deterrence on the tendency to commit crime. Unlike Gino and Mogilner’s (2014) study, which involves a very minor moral crime such as lying about a word jumble game, Gallupe and Baron (2014) linked morality to more applicable real world crimes such as robbery and illegal drug use. Gallupe and Baron’s (2014) results are therefore more likely to be widely applicable to the real world as these types of crimes are highly prevalent in today’s society, rather than lying about a word jumble game. Thus, the findings from Gino and Mogilner’s (2014) study concerning the concept of cheating and morality, are limited in their applicability to the real world.
Certain demographic variables in Gino and Mogilner’s (2014) study such as age may have a significant impact on their findings, despite the use of time and money primes. According to Lu, Huang and Chang (2014), age is the most impacting demographic variable that affects a person’s

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