Eavesdropping on Character: Assessing Everyday Moral Behaviors.
Despite decades of interest in moral character, comparatively little is known about moral behavior in everyday life. This paper reports a novel method for assessing everyday moral behaviors using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR)-a digital audio-recorder that intermittently samples snippets of ambient sounds from people's environments-and examines the stability of these moral behaviors. In three samples (combined N = 186), participants wore an EAR over one or two weekends. Audio files were coded for everyday moral behaviors (e.g., showing sympathy, gratitude) and morally-neutral comparison language behaviors (e.g., use of prepositions, articles). Results indicate that stable individual differences in moral behavior can be systematically observed in daily life, and that their stability is comparable to the stability of neutral language behaviors.
Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Kathryn L
KL
Bollich
Department of Philosophy and Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA. jdoris@wustl.edu.
John M
JM
Doris
Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA. svazire@ucdavis.edu.
Simine
S
Vazire
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, raison@wisc.edu.
Charles L
CL
Raison
Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Joshua J
JJ
Jackson
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. mehl@email.arizona.edu.
Matthias R
MR
Mehl
Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR); ambulatory assessment; moral behavior; moral character; naturalistic observation; personality; temporal stability