Psychological Influence Factors Analysis of the New Generation Employees’ Moral Choices from the Perspective of Cognitive Neurology

At present, the academic researches on moral choices focus mainly on the individuals’ external behaviors, without fully considering the influences of the individuals’ internal psychological factors. Based on the model of complete information static games in the Non-cooperative Game theory, the present research has designed a “Red and Blue Experiment” to explore the psychological influencing factors of the new generation employees’ moral choices. The research has conducted psychoanalysis on the new generation employees through experiments and interviews with 118 data sources, and concluded the characteristics in relation to the different stages of psychological processes and moral choices of the experimental population. Through comparative analysis, it is found that: the psychological factors, such as trust, doubt, and guilt will influence the new generation employees’ moral choices, guiding them to make choices, such as risk aversion and mutual benefit and win-win, in the process. Additionally, the research has also provided effective scientific evidence for the new generation employees’ mental health development and career planning.


Introduction
New generation employees generally refer to those born after the 1980s as defined in China according to their birth years and grow-up background. However, the research focuses mainly on the "post-95" population among the new generation employees. New generation employees are generally considered as psychologically weak at the present stage, and some even call the population a "Strawberry Generation" jokingly, deeming that they cannot take much pressure and get easily dented-just like strawberries, though looking chic and good. Facing pressure from all sources, such as love and marriage, buying house and car, and workplace competition, the new generation employees in China generally have no clear plans and may even feel uncertain about the future. The new generation employees have gradually become the main part of the labor force [1]. They grew up in a protected environment with few setbacks and thus get hurt easily in the workplace. Also, they usually have strong self-esteem and may lose enthusiasm for work and even have reverse psychology once being criticized. Therefore, the new generation employees' psychological states and the moral choices made by them accordingly in those states are two key factors relating to their own career development and the healthy development of enterprises.
Kohlberg's theory of moral development divides moral development into six stages with four moral orientations available in each stage to define the four types of decision strategies: normative order, utilitarian consequences, justice and equity, and ideal self. However, Kohlberg's stages of moral development target the external moral judgments on the individuals only, without considering whether individuals are influenced by psychological factors when they are making the moral choices [2]. An individual's psychological state is a scientific and reasonable way for brain cells to respond to an external stimulus. It is an external form that goes on silently in the cognitive process and manifests itself in the cognitive activities. Further researches have shown that cognitive activities, after being mapped to the brain cells, will promote the brain cells' activities and induce the generation of brain potential, thus stimulating cranial nerve conduction for brain resources allocation to produce emotional competences and form brain images [3]; the accumulation produced by this process, in turn, directs the individual's behavioral activities. According to this theory, the moral choices made by the youth in the new era are also bound to be influenced by internal psychological cognition, as they are also external behaviors [4]. Foreign scholars have made in-depth studies on moral choices. Joshan Greene and his colleagues suggested in 2004 that we made different choices in moral dilemmas because our different levels of personal involvement had led to different emotional choices in the process [5]. Greene and his colleagues conducted a series of FMRI studies and compared the moral dilemmas involving high and low levels of personal involvement. Just as they expected, personal and non-personal dilemmas were associated with different levels of brain activation. These studies found that non-personal decision-making was associated with greater activation of the right lateral prefrontal cortex and the bilateral parietal lobes, namely areas associated with working memory. In contrast, areas such as the medial frontal cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus, and amygdala, namely areas associated with the social cognition process, were significantly activated when the choices under test required more individual efforts. To sum up, such studies suggest that our different moral choices are related to the extent to which emotions are allowed to influence our perceptions of what are morally acceptable choices [6]. Emotions, to a large extent, are the external manifestation of psychological states, so the new generation employees' moral choices are bound to be related to their psychological states [7]. There is a lack of literature on the influence of psychological factors on moral choice, and relevant studies are only theoretical inference, without effective experiments and data analysis.
Taking into account China's national conditions and social development status, the research has designed a "Red and Blue Experiment" based on the Non-cooperative Game theory to test the subjects' moral choices during the mutual game and explore the influences of the psychological factors on their moral choices. Different methods can be used for decision making [8]. The experimental model used is novel and has strong correlation, it strives to answer the following three questions: (1) what kinds of psychological states do the youth in the new era have during the Red and Blue Experiment? (2) whether moral choices made by the new youth will be influenced by the psychological factors? (3) if yes, how do psychological factors influence the moral choices of the new youth? The research framework of the paper is as shown in Fig. 1.

Overview of New Generation Employees
The new generation employees in China were born in the context of economic globalization and economic transformation. Certain generation gaps exist between the employees born in the 1980s and the new generation employees that were born following the trend of the times. Compared to the post-80s, the new generation employees fight for self-development more than just for a living. According to the needs of the study population and the characteristics of the times, new generation employees in the research, by reference to the time-dependent classification method used the scholars, refer to those young employees who were born from 1995 to 2000 and currently aged around 20 to 25 and have just entered the workplace. The new generation employees is becoming an increasingly important topic for business and academia [9]. Study also indicated that the majority of employees validated the sustainability practices as genuine [10].
The new generation employees are more self-respecting, and they are more self-centered when thinking and acting. Actually, each generation has its unique stamp placed by the times where they grew up, and such a stamp exerts subtle influences on their psychological features. Since the new generation employees were born in the Internet era, their psychological features will inevitably be influenced by the Internet Society and become markedly different from those of the previous generations. Some scholars have found that the new generation employees have the following 16 psychological features, including seven positive features, respectively independent-minded, energetic, intelligent, dare to think and dare to do, diligent, optimistic, and aspirant, five negative features, respectively effeminate, self-centered, willful, lack of responsibility, and confused, and four neutral features, respectively free, fashionable, individualized, and hedonic. Among the five negative features, effeminacy, lack of responsibility, and confusion can lead to work withdrawal behaviors. New generation employees tend to have strong achievement motivation, and they have high expectations for their work performance; however, in real work, they often become confused, which will result in vague self-positioning, work withdrawal behaviors and other problems. Another study shows that, in corporate HRM practices, people generally complain about the vulnerability of the new generation employees who are prone to shrink back to avoid the responsibility and frustration brought by work when they encounter even a little setback. Under the great pressure from both society and family, their mental health status is generally lower than the social average [11]. Some scholars have also pointed out that new generation employees are generally independent-minded, energetic, selfcentered, and highly independent, and they are more likely to quit their jobs. The role of inclusive leadership, organizational commitment, and organizational justice in influence the active behavior of new generation employees [12].
Stability is one of the most important characteristics of the new generation of employees. Personal factors influence the new generation employees' stability: as new generation employees are with high knowledge levels, good learning capacity, and diversified value orientations, they focus on the sustainability of their career development. In addition to paying attention to whether their desires for personal development can be satisfied, whether their own knowledge, competencies, interests, personalities, and values match with the organization is also an important factor affecting the stability of

Psychological Process and Social Cognitive Theory
Basic level of concepts represents a significant, thoroughly explored psychological phenomenon in the psychology of concepts [13]. We using our insight into the human brain to create reasonable arguments and discussions [14]. A psychological process refers to a process that psychological activities occur and develop in a certain period of time under the action of objective things. We conclude that many species possess the psychological processes to show some form of reciprocity [15]. It generally includes three aspects: cognitive process, emotional process and will process. The psychological factors discussed in the research are included in the emotional process of the psychological process and are shown as the psychological states of the new generation employees in the experiment. The self-efficacy aspect of psychological capital includes an individual's confidence in his capability to mobilize motivation, cognitive resources and courses of action to achieve high levels of performance [16].
A cognitive process describes the process by which humans perceive the world by forming concepts, perceptions, judgments, or imagination. In general, a cognitive process involves two participant roles: one is the person who participates in the psychological experience, namely the "knower", and the other one is the cognitive object of the cognitive psychological experience, namely the "phenomenon". In most cases, the "knower" is a human being and can also be a personified thing in a special context. In other words, the knower must be a participant with thinking consciousness. However, individual behaviour is also limited by the external environment in real situations [17]. Cognition is conducted by the body, including the brain. The anatomical structure, the activity pattern, and the perceptual and motor experience of the body determine how we perceive and see the world. Our cognition is embodied in the body and its activity patterns, rather than psychological program software that runs on the "physical hardware" and can direct the body. The social cognitive theory, first proposed by Bandura, emphasizes that human behaviors are influenced by individual cognition, behavior and environment and their interactions; and it also suggests that human behaviors are perceptions of ourselves and our environment. In social cognitive theory, "personal factors", "environmental factors" and "behavior" act as interrelating contributing elements which impact each other [18], it is a structured and ordered event and a widely accepted theory in explaining individual behaviors [19]. Cognitive units play a role in cognitive models and can be divided into internal and external ones. The social cognitive theory comprises three categories: individual, group, and relationship. Individual cognition refers to individuals' education and experience etc.; social cognition of a group is characterized by cohesion and atmosphere; and relationship is shown as close or distant. Social cognition in a broad sense is embodied in attitude, motivation, cognition, communication, and decision-making. It argues that an individual's behavior is partially shaped by his or her cognition (e.g., expectations, beliefs) [20]. The "Red and Blue Experiment" designed in the research examines the risky decision-making of the new generation employees under the communication conditions. When investigating the law of individuals' risk preferences, the psychological states of the decision makers while making such decisions should not be ignored. An existing research has shown that individuals who make decisions for themselves pay more attention to defense and have motivations to avoid failure.

Overview of Moral Choices
Not only in the field of ethics, but also in a larger scale of advocacy [21]. Recent years have seen a proliferation of research investigating the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying moral cognition [22]. Moral choices, as a basic form of life choices, refer to people's choices of moral consciousness and moral behavior according to certain moral ideals, moral principles and moral norms in realistic moral relationships, and they are the choices that the humans make in the moral field. They are also the highest form of social choices and embody the unity of humans' subjective consciousness and value tendency. They are the unity of the humans' position and negation on the reality for the purposes of self-improvement and achieving a certain moral ideal. In the meantime, they are the subjects' self-transcendence. Moral choices are not only the essential features of moral activities, but also an important manifestation of the essential features of human beings. We usually refer to individuals' moral choices when we mention the term moral choices. Individuals' moral choices are mostly based on their personal moral judgments, as for the theories and practices of moral choices, it is inevitable to encounter the problem of the relationship between fact and value. Moral subjects need to give play to their autonomy and initiative by balancing and judging the moral choices. Deep moral enhancement is relatively prone to unexpected consequences [23]. Philosophically, value refers to the degree of satisfaction of people's needs. People's judgments on whether things can meet their own needs are referred to as value judgments. Through value judgments, people can make the right choices, which are called value choices. The value choice is different from the moral choice, and pays more attention to interests. Moral distress occurs when the morally correct action to take but are unable to follow through because of internal and external constraints [24]. Furthermore, moral identity positively moderates the relationship between a rule ethical climate and new generation employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior [25].
Normally, people perform accordingly consistent with standards of care, and inner moral motivation [26]. Cognition and emotion are two important factors influencing the actors' moral judgments and moral choices. Moral judgments involve two different processing systems: one is a deliberate cognitive inference process, which is related to the acquisition and observance of abstract moral principles, and the other one is a relatively implicit emotional motivation process, which is associated with social adaptation. We are all susceptible to moral emotion, but far fewer of us are skilled at harnessing its power constructively [27]. Moral psychology is no longer seen as empirical psychology plus ethical analysis, but the contents of psychological findings are understood as being influenced and framed by moral reflection [28]. Kant puts justice before utility, while Mill puts utility before justice; however, neither theory has explained how moral choices work in the real world. They have revealed the brain mechanisms when people are making moral choices with brain scans: our emotions determine our moral choices, and they have played an important role while we are making moral choices.
Three other concepts relate to moral choice, the moral bias, moral injury and moral disruption. The neural basis for how such "moral bias" occurs, especially how it is maintained in the resting state, are largely unknown [29]. Moral injury's core features are existential conflict, shame, guilt and selfcondemnation [30]. The collective moral damage is long-lasting [31]. According to Robert Baker, moral disruption is a process in which technological innovations undermine established moral norms without clearly leading to a new set of norms [32].

Research Methods and Research Samples
The research methods include experiment method and interview method and the research process comprises model building, data analysis, and induction and deduction. The research takes the new generation employees in China as its research samples and classifies them into two groups, respectively odd group and even group, for a test. The test content includes the subjects' psychological states and the behavioral consequences of moral choices. For five years, the research has collected a total of 118 experimental data spanning from 2016 to 2020 and has obtained an interview report by interviewing such new generation employees.

Experimental Model and Variable Measurement
Game theory considers the predicted behavior and actual behavior of individuals in games and studies their optimization strategies. When economists talk about game theory, they generally refer to noncooperative game theory. Since cooperative game theory is more complex than non-cooperative game theory, it is far less mature in theory than non-cooperative game theory. Non-cooperative games can be divided into complete information static game, complete information dynamic game, incomplete information static game and incomplete information dynamic game. The experiment is an improved version of the model of complete information static games under the game theory. The two game sides are classified into two groups, respectively an even group and an odd group, following the game model as shown in Table 1 (each number represents a payoff function). Five experiments are to be conducted for each group with the first one and the second one being a game without communication each, the third one being a game upon communication, and the fourth one and the fifth one being a sore-doubling game without communication each. The total score of each group is to be counted after the five experiments, and the winning condition of the experiment is that the score is positive. Experimental variables include the scores and the total scores of the two groups during the game.

Statistical Treatment
In the present research, SPSS24.0 was used for data analysis, mainly for a one-sample T-test and correlation analysis of the data.

One-Sample T-Test of Data Results
First of all, a one-sample T-test was conducted on the six experimental data respectively to study the psychological and emotional processes of the subjects. Test results include mean (M), standard deviation (SD), t-value, significance (P value), and 95% confidence interval of difference (such indicators can fully describe the features of the data and test whether there is a significant difference between the sample mean and the population mean). The test results were as shown in Table 2.
Among the 118 Red and Blue Experiment samples, six score variables were significant at the level of 0.05, while the average scores of five score variables showed a trend of gradual increase. At the end of the first experiment without communication, the average scores of both the odd and the even groups were low, and most of the subjects chose blue. After the second experiment, the average scores increased somewhat, but were still negative, indicating that without knowing the other side, the subjects' psychological emotional processes were relatively in doubt, and their moral choices were risk aversion, manifested as distrust or betrayal. However, in the next three experiments upon communication, the average scores were 2.54, 1.83 and 1.93, respectively, which were all positive and larger than those of the previous experiments without communication, and the scores were greatly improved. Upon communication, the subjects' effective social cognition was increased and the participants in the experimental groups developed trusting relationships, so they scored higher. At this point, their moral choices tended to be mutually beneficial and win-win and the external behaviors of such moral choices were embodied as cooperation.

Correlation Analysis
By using the method of correlation analysis, the paper explored whether the psychological factors would have any influences on the new generation employees' moral choices and what kind of influences they would have. The experimental data were analyzed by the data analysis software SPSS, and the results were listed in Table 3 (among them, P < 0.01 indicates significant correlation at level 0.01 and P < 0.05 indicates significant correlation at the level of 0.05, which is considered statistically significant).
Among the correlation analysis results, the score of Game 1 without communication was significantly and positively correlated with that of Game 2 without communication (r = 0.304, P < 0.05); the score of Game 1 without communication was significantly and negatively correlated with that of game upon communication (r = -0.232, P < 0.05); the score of Game 2 without communication was significantly and positively correlated with that of score-doubling Game 1 without communication (r = 0.198, P < 0.05); the score of score-doubling Game 1 without communication was significantly and positively correlated with that of score-doubling Game 2 without communication(r = 0.413, P < 0.01); the total score was significantly and positively correlated with the scores of Game 1 without communication, Game 2 without communication, game upon communication, score-doubling Game 1 without communication, and score-doubling Game 2 without communication (P < 0.01).
Game 1 without communication and Game 2 without communication were significantly and positively correlated at the level of 0.05, and score-doubling Game 1 without communication and score-doubling Game 2 without communication were significantly and positively correlated at the level of 0.05, indicating that if the odd group and the even group both choose red, they are more likely to choose red and get a high score in the next game and if the odd group and the even group both choose blue, they also more likely to choose blue and score low in the next game. Obviously, if, upon effective cognition, they find that the other side can be trusted, they will continue to choose red and get a high score in the next selection as getting a high score can increase the trust between them; however, if, upon cognition, they find that the other side is not trustworthy, both groups will choose blue in the next experiment and thus get a low score as doubtful psychological factors will occur and lead their moral choices to risk aversion. That is to say, if there is a psychological state of trust between the experimental groups, they will form a contract and their moral choices will be more inclined to mutual benefits and win-win situations; on the contrary, if the experimental groups choose selfishness in order to avoid risks (if they choose blue, they could guarantee that the other group cannot win the game), both groups' scores will become lower and lower during the experiments, and the psychological state of doubt will lead to behaviors that are not conducive to cooperation interests. Game 1 without communication and game upon communication were significantly and negatively associated at the level of 0.05, and the lower the score of Game 1 without communication was, the higher the score upon communication would be, indicating that the group who have scored low by choosing blue conservatively in Game 1 without communication will be driven to cooperate with the other side under the incentive of winning the game upon communication. However, if the scores were high in Game 1 without communication, the odd and even groups will get lower scores in the subsequent experiments due to their risk-averse moral choices for the purpose of winning the game.

Psychological State Analysis
All data results are presented in Tables 4-12. The data results in Tables 13 and 14 were close to the expected results, and the follow-up questionnaire had good timeliness, so they were used as the main analysis objects. Therefore, using part of the experimental data (Tables 13 and 14) were combined with the interview report for detailed analysis. In the first experiment, 13 of the 18 groups chose blue, and according to the results of the interview report, the members of the experimental groups all believed that due to the insufficient cognition of the pair group, the risk of choosing red was too high, so they chose blue to avoid the risk. In the second experiment, among the 13 groups who had chosen blue in the first experiment, only two groups chose red and the other 11 groups continued to choose blue, and the interview results showed that those who chose red expected to make changes to get high scores together with the pair groups as the previous choice of blue had led to low scores, while those who continued to choose blue still chose risk aversion and refused to change their moral choices until they have obtained cognition upon communication.
Among the experiments of Group 3 and Group 4 in Table 13, Group 4, motivated by winning the game, chose blue in the fifth experiment to avoid risk, so the result was that Group 3 and Group 4, which should have been win-win, became single-win. In the interview report, Group 4 said they chose blue for fear of the other group's betrayal. During the first two games of Group 7 and Group 8 in Table 13

Research Conclusions
Two opposite psychological states, respectively trust and doubt, as well as the psychological state of guilt after giving betrayal have occurred among the new generation employees in these experiments. From the correlation analysis of the score data and the analysis of the psychological states known from interviews, it can be seen that the new generation employees will be influenced by their psychological states while making moral choices. Upon effective cognition and communication, if the psychological to make moral choices of risk aversion; and, in addition, the guilt brought by betrayal will lead to new trust and cooperation. The experiment also comes to the conclusion that: incentives can drive the subjects either to cooperate or to betray.

Theoretical Significance
Through interactive analysis of the new generation employees' moral choices and psychological factors, the research has found that: psychological factors also influence the individuals' moral choices. Therefore, the research on moral choices shall not be limited to individuals, and shall also be interpreted from the perspective of psychological cognition, which has made up for the deficiencies of relevant researches on moral choices. It provides a theoretical basis for the study of morality and has certain academic value.

Practical Significance
As we have known that psychological factors have influences on the new generation employees' moral choices, the Chinese enterprises' cultivation on the new generation employees' moral requirements should consider not only the employees' external behavior qualities, but also their psychological health education. Additionally, as one of the core issues explored in this paper is to research the psychological states of the new generation employees, the research can provide a reference for the enterprises' cultivation of moral qualities and also theoretical support for the methods and paths of moral education in China.

Research Limitations
Certain limitations still exist with the present research: (1) The samples are not diversified enough as they are collected in big cities only, and the data size 118 is also insufficient, which limits the credibility of the samples to some extent. Subsequent researches can be conducted with the support of larger sample size and the investigations in a wider range. (2) As the experiment framework used in the research is only the model of complete information static games in the non-cooperative game, the research methods still need to be supplemented. (3) The experiment has not used motivational or punitive incentives involving money benefits as the result conditions, and the content of the experiment needs to be expanded.