title: Moral hypocrisy: appearing moral to oneself without being so.
abstract: How can people appear moral to themselves when they fail to act morally? Two self-deception strategies were considered: (a) misperceive one's behavior as moral and (b) avoid comparing one's behavior with moral standards. In Studies 1 and 2 the authors documented the importance of the 2nd strategy but not the 1st. Among participants who flipped a coin to assign themselves and another participant "fairly" to tasks, even a clearly labeled coin that prevented misperception did not produce a fair result (Study 1). Inducing behavior-standard comparison through self-awareness did (Study 2). Study 3 qualified the self-awareness effect: When moral standards were not salient before acting, self-awareness no longer increased alignment of behavior with standards. Instead, it increased alignment of standards with behavior and produced less moral action. Overall, results showed 3 different faces of moral hypocrisy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045-0001, USA.
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Batson
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Seuferling
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Whitney
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Strongman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D011897:Random Allocation; D012649:Self Concept