Moral hypocrisy: appearing moral to oneself without being so.
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.
Batson
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Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045-0001, USA.
Thompson
E R
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Seuferling
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Whitney
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Strongman
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JA
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D011897:Random Allocation; D012649:Self Concept