Abstract
Moral character is widely expected to lead to moral judgements and practices. However, such expectations are often breached, especially when moral character is measured by self-report. We propose that because self-reported moral character partly reflects a desire to appear good, people who self-report a strong moral character will show moral harshness towards others and downplay their own transgressions—that is, they will show greater moral hypocrisy. This self-other discrepancy in moral judgements should be pronounced among individuals who are particularly motivated by reputation. Employing diverse methods including large-scale multination panel data (N = 34,323), and vignette and behavioural experiments (N = 700), four studies supported our proposition, showing that various indicators of moral character (Benevolence and Universalism values, justice sensitivity, and moral identity) predicted harsher judgements of others' more than own transgressions. Moreover, these double standards emerged particularly among individuals possessing strong reputation management motives. The findings highlight how reputational concerns moderate the link between moral character and moral judgement.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 244-261 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | British Journal of Psychology |
Volume | 114 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 4 Nov 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was funded by China Scholarship Council (grant number 201606040158) and European Research Council (grant number MSCA‐IF‐2017‐800096‐EmoPun).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.
Funding
This research was funded by China Scholarship Council (grant number 201606040158) and European Research Council (grant number MSCA‐IF‐2017‐800096‐EmoPun).
Funders | Funder number |
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Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | 800096 |
European Research Council | MSCA‐IF‐2017‐800096‐EmoPun |
China Scholarship Council | 201606040158 |
Keywords
- hypocrisy
- moral character
- morality
- reputation
- status