Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

The Role of Self-Control in Preventing Unethical Behaviors: Evidence from Delay Discounting Tasks

Shize DongPioneer Academy*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Unethical behavior often reflects a conflict between immediate self-interest and longer-term moral or reputational costs. Delay discounting (DD) provides a process-sensitive measure of temporal myopia in reward valuation, while self-control captures regulatory capacity in goal pursuit. This study investigates how DD and self-control jointly predict unethical behavior. A sample of 307 Chinese university students completed validated measures of DD, self-control, and unethical behavioral tendencies. Correlational analyses revealed that steeper DD was positively associated with unethical behavior, whereas higher self-control was negatively associated with unethical behavior. Moreover, self-control correlated negatively with DD, suggesting that individuals with stronger regulatory capacity are less biased toward short-term rewards. Regression analyses confirmed that both DD and self-control independently predicted unethical behavior, accounting for 53% of the variance. These findings provide evidence that unethical decision making is not an occasional lapse but a systematic outcome of intertemporal valuation biases and regulatory processes. The results support neurocomputational models of moral choice that emphasize value-based integration of immediate gains and long-term costs, moderated by control mechanisms. Practically, DD tasks and self-control measures may serve as early indicators of ethical risk, enabling targeted interventions.

Keywords: delay discounting; self-control; unethical behavior; moral decision making; impulsivity
Published: November 19, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.HT29715
Volume: CHR Vol.97
pp. 67-75
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