Priming moral self-ambivalence heightens deliberative behaviour in self-ambivalent individuals.
BACKGROUND
Recent work on cognitive-behavioural models of obsessive-compulsive disorder has focused on the roles played by various aspects of self-perception. In particular, moral self-ambivalence has been found to be associated with obsessive-compulsive phenomena.


OBJECTIVE
In this study we used an experimental task to investigate whether artificially priming moral self-ambivalence would increase participants' deliberation on ethical problems, an index that might be analogous to obsessive-compulsive behaviour.


METHODS
Non-clinical participants completed two online tasks designed to prime either moral self-ambivalence, general uncertainty, or neither. All participants then completed a task requiring them to consider solutions to moral dilemmas. We recorded the time participants took to respond to the dilemmas and the length of their responses; we then combined these variables to create a measure of deliberation.


RESULTS
Priming moral self-ambivalence led to increases in deliberation, but this was only significant among those participants who scored highly on a baseline measure of moral self-ambivalence. Priming general uncertainty had no significant effect upon deliberation.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that moral self-ambivalence may play a role in the maintenance of obsessive-compulsive behaviour. We propose that individuals who are morally self-ambivalent might respond to situations in which this ambivalence is made salient by exhibiting behaviour with obsessive-compulsive characteristics. These findings have implications for the incorporation of ideas about self-concept into theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
University of Surrey,Guildford,UK.
Ramesh
R
Perera-Delcourt
University of Surrey,Guildford,UK.
Robert A
RA
Nash
Newcastle University,UK.
Susan J
SJ
Thorpe
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D035863:Moral Development; D009042:Motivation; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D060865:Repetition Priming; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult