Hypocrisy as Irony: Toward a Cognitive Model of Hypocrisy

Abstract

This article presents evidence that hypocrisy is nothing other than a special form of situational irony. A cognitive model of hypocrisy judgments is described and its plausibility assessed. This view of hypocrisy is contrasted with previous characterizations of hypocrisy from the psychological and philosophical literature, in which no connection between hypocrisy and irony has been explored. The article offers some explanations as to why it is plausible that hypocrisy should occur as a kind of irony, and why the connection is not self-evident. It is also speculated that the hypocrisy is morally egregious because the irony involved tends to result in violations of distributive justice. Directions for future research are discussed.The purpose of this article is to substantiate the claim that hypocrisy is nothing other than a form of situational irony. That hypocrisy and situational irony are connected is not news. Shelley (2001) noted that some situational ironies are also hypocrisies. Consider the case of Emilio Valdez and Alfredo Hodoyan, two Mexican citizens who were arrested in California on charges of drug trafficking (Shelley, 2001, p. 792). They were extradited to Mexico where they were accused of being hitmen for a notorious drug cartel. Valdez and Hodoyan appealed the extradition on the basis that the police had violated their human rights to obtain information from them. The judges rejected the appeal, and one of them commented that it was ironic that Valdez and Hodoyan invoked claims to human rights when they appear to make their living by violating human rights, through drug trafficking and murder. Note that not only is it ironic for Valdez and Hodoyan to profess respect for human rights when they flaunt those rights in practice, but it is also hypocritical of them to do so, and for the same reason.

“Holy Cow, My Irony Detector Just Exploded!” Calling Out Irony During The Coronavirus Pandemic

“…5 Being called a "hypocrite" is a direct attack on one's personal integrity, even more so than irony, and suggests that an individual should have known better before engaging in contradictory behavior. Nonetheless, hypocrisy is closely related to irony in that both reflect the presence of a cognitive bi-coherence structure in which xxx (Shelley, 2004). Hypocrisy "is morally egregious because the irony involved tends to result in violations of distributive justice" (Shelley, 2004, p. 169).…”