Morality in the flesh: on the link between bodily self-consciousness, moral identity and (dis)honest behaviour

Abstract

The sense of owning a body (ownership) and controlling its actions (agency) are two main pillars of bodily self-consciousness (BSC). Although studies suggest that BSC signals and morality may be associated, whether such association has a positive or negative direction remains unclear. To investigate this issue, we conducted two pre-registered, online studies, in which a total of 1309 participants completed BSC- and morality-related questionnaires and undertook a task where they could cheat for monetary gain. We found that participants with high sense of ownership displayed high moral identity, which supports the notion that ownership is used to associate the self with positive characteristics. Moreover, high agency was associated with increased moral identity when sense of power is high. Results regarding deception are less clear, and might relate to the impact of COVID-19. Our results concerning moral identity may inspire policies that rely on changes of corporeal awareness to contrast immorality.

Ownership of the affected leg is further reduced following deceptive behaviors in body integrity dysphoria

“… 57 , 58 Considering that the value of rewards is associated with an increase of cheating behaviors, 59 we designed the U-TLCG to be more tempting and engaging for older participants. In line with the studies from Scattolin et al., 26 , 27 we hypothesized that participants with BID might communicate more self-gain lies using their affected leg compared to the non-affected leg, while participants with similar levels of SoO across their legs (those in the CG) might not show the same pattern.

Figure 1 Schematic representation of the unfair version of the Temptation to Lie Card Game (U-TLCG) and of the Reaction Time task (RT task) A timeline of each trial is presented on the rightmost part of the figure.

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“…In a recent survey study, participants completed a series of questionnaires that also assessed their SoO and moral identity. 26 Individuals with a low score on the SoO questionnaire also found moral characteristics to be less relevant for their concept of self, compared to those with high SoO scores. In another study, researchers applied virtual reality to modulate the SoO of participants over a virtual body.…”

Deceptive behaviors enhance estrangement of the affected limb in people with Body Integrity Dysphoria

“…Considering that the value of rewards is associated with an increase of cheating behaviors [57], we designed the U-TLCG to be more tempting and engaging for older participants. In line with the studies from Scattolin and colleagues [26,27], we hypothesized that participants with BID might communicate more self-gain lies using their affected leg compared to the non-affected leg.…”

“…On the other hand, investigations of the role of SoO suggest that low SoO in healthy participants may be associated with higher immorality. In a recent survey study, participants completed a series of questionnaires that also assessed their SoO and moral identity [26]. Individuals with a low score on the SoO questionnaire also found moral characteristics to be less relevant for their concept of self, compared to those with high SoO scores.…”

The thermoception task: a thermal-imaging based procedure for measuring awareness of changes in peripheral body temperature

“…Recent years have shown increasing interest in the role that awareness of the physiological state of the body, or interoception 1,2 , plays in emotion for recent reviews see [3][4][5] , psychopathology for a review see 6 , and social cognition and behaviour, such as empathy and perspective taking [7][8][9][10][11] , social disposition 12 , altruistic behaviour 13 , moral identity 14 , and moral decision-making 15 . Research on interoception has focused mainly on the cardiac domain, because heartbeats are distinct events that can be easily measured 16 and because of the important role that heart-brain interactions seem to play in emotional processing 17 .…”