Being good to look good: Self-reported moral character predicts moral double standards among reputation-seeking individuals

Mengchen Dong*, Tom R. Kupfer, Shuai Yuan, Jan Willem van Prooijen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)244-261
Number of pages18
JournalBritish Journal of Psychology
Volume114
Issue number1
Early online date4 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 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).

FundersFunder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme800096
European Research CouncilMSCA‐IF‐2017‐800096‐EmoPun
China Scholarship Council201606040158

    Keywords

    • hypocrisy
    • moral character
    • morality
    • reputation
    • status

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