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

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

SUBMITTER: Dong M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10098708 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature