Social observation and moral hypocrisy
Previous research shows that self-interest has a motivating influence in moral reasoning and decision-making. However, cues of social observation show a positive influential effect on moral and cooperative behavior, in both experimental and real-world contexts. Implementing an expected utility framework to model moral deliberation as a cost-benefit calculation, the present study synthesizes these two effects by examining whether social observation impacts decisions in a moral dilemma situation. Utilizing Batson et al.’s (1997) moral dilemma paradigm, we test whether the perceived presence of observers increases the likelihood of making a fair allocation of a reward in a large university sample (N = 161). Across three social observation conditions, participants’ allocation decisions were recorded, including their emotional reactions and open- ended justifications. Behavioral and affective response patterns indicated that participants acted in accordance with a self-interested, morally hypocritical motivational approach, while cues of observation were not shown to influence behavior. Past and future theoretical implications are discussed.
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- In Collections
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Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Copyright Status
- In Copyright
- Material Type
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Theses
- Authors
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Defever, Andrew Marcel
- Thesis Advisors
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Navarrete, Carlos D.
- Committee Members
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Cesario, Joseph
Kashy, Deborah A.
- Date
- 2016
- Subjects
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Ethics
Hypocrisy
Self-interest
- Program of Study
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Psychology - Master of Arts
- Degree Level
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Masters
- Language
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English
- Pages
- v, 51 pages
- ISBN
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9781339680200
1339680203
- Permalink
- https://doi.org/doi:10.25335/htv6-7v47