Wyss, Annika M; Baumgartner, Thomas; Guizar Rosales, Emmanuel; Soutschek, Alexander; Knoch, Daria (2024). Cathodal HD-tDCS above the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex increases environmentally sustainable decision-making. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 18(1395426) Frontiers Research Foundation 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1395426
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Environmental sustainability is characterized by a conflict between short-term self-interest and longer-term collective interests. Self-control capacity has been proposed to be a crucial determinant of people's ability to overcome this conflict. Yet, causal evidence is lacking, and previous research is dominated by the use of self-report measures. Here, we modulated self-control capacity by applying inhibitory high-definition transcranial current stimulation (HD-tDCS) above the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) while participants engaged in an environmentally consequential decision-making task. The task includes conflicting and low conflicting trade-offs between short-term personal interests and long-term environmental benefits. Contrary to our preregistered expectation, inhibitory HD-tDCS above the left dlPFC, presumably by reducing self-control capacity, led to more, and not less, pro-environmental behavior in conflicting decisions. We speculate that in our exceptionally environmentally friendly sample, deviating from an environmentally sustainable default required self-control capacity, and that inhibiting the left dlPFC might have reduced participants' ability to do so.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology |
UniBE Contributor: |
Wyss, Annika Marit, Baumgartner, Thomas, Guizar Rosales, Emmanuel Teófilo, Knoch, Daria |
Subjects: |
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology |
ISSN: |
1662-5161 |
Publisher: |
Frontiers Research Foundation |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Pubmed Import |
Date Deposited: |
01 Jul 2024 15:58 |
Last Modified: |
01 Jul 2024 16:08 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.3389/fnhum.2024.1395426 |
PubMed ID: |
38946792 |
Uncontrolled Keywords: |
decision conflict high-definition transcranial current stimulation prefrontal cortex self-control sustainable behavior |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/198347 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/198347 |
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