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 judgments 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 judgments 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 behavioral experiments (N = 700), four studies supported our proposition, showing that various indicators of moral character (Benevolence and Universalism values, justice sensitivity, and moral identity) predicted harsher judgments of others' more than own transgressions. Moreover, these double standards emerged particularly among individuals possessing strong reputation management motives. The findings highlight how reputational concerns moderate the link between moral character and moral judgment.

Responsibility Gaps and Self-interest Bias: People Attribute Moral Responsibility to AI for Their Own but not Others' Transgressions

“…By introducing participants as outsiders of transgressions (i.e., evaluating in-/out-group members' transgressions) and measuring their moral preference as a covariate to moral judgments, we did not find evidence for the relation between moral preference and self-interest bias in hybrid moral situations. This finding is conceptually consistent with previous research, which revealed consistent patterns of self-interest bias in vignette and behavioral studies (e.g., Dong et al, 2023;Lammers et al, 2010).…”

“…People often favor themselves over others and ingroup members over outgroup members in, for example, their social cognition, emotional expressions, and moral judgments, which are often related to a self-interest or self-serving bias (Balliet et al, 2014;Barden et al, 2014;Bocian et al, 2020;Darke & Chaiken, 2005;Epley & Dunning, 2000;Shepperd et al, 2008). In terms of moral judgments, specifically, people evaluate others' selfish acts more leniently when they can (vs. cannot) benefit from it (Bocian & Wojciszke, 2014) and deem their own transgressions as more acceptable than equivalent transgressions by others (Dong et al, 2023;Lammers et al, 2010). Some preliminary evidence also corroborates the idea that people do not uphold identical standards for themselves versus others in hybrid transgressions.…”

What is known about personal reputation? A systematic literature review

“…On the other hand, 40 articles or 43.9% were categorized in the area of Theory-building (see, e.g., Refs. [ 10 , 11 , 13 , 30 , 49 , 53 , 55 ] [ [98] , [99] , [100] , [101] , [102] , [103] , [104] , [105] , [106] , [107] , [108] , [109] , [110] , [111] , [112] , [113] , [114] , [115] , [116] , [117] , [118] , [119] , [120] , [121] , [122] , [123] , [124] , [125] , [126] , [127] , [128] , [129] , [130] ]). For instance, the study by Ahn et al [ 49 ] suggests comparing the younger children's reasoning about self-focused versus other-focused reputation strategies directly.…”

Innovative Exploration of Ideological and Political Education Teaching in Colleges and Universities under the Perspective of Cultural Confidence

“…Through Civics theories, ideological and moral cultivation, and education on socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, it helps college students to form a correct worldview, outlook on life, and values and makes them identify with the core values of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and gradually build up cultural self-confidence so that they can develop their cultural confidence. The education of ideological theory, ideological and moral cultivation, and socialist culture with Chinese characteristics helps college students to form a correct worldview, life view, and values, make them identify with the core values of socialism with Chinese characteristics, gradually build up their cultural self-confidence, and grow up to be newcomers of the times who realize the Chinese dream [10][11][12]. It can be seen that cultural self-confidence and ideological education in colleges and universities are compatible in this perspective, and cultural self-confidence is indispensable for the smooth implementation of ideological education in colleges and universities, and the implementation of ideological education can enhance the cultural self-confidence of college students to a certain extent, and achieve the effect of "educating the people with culture."…”