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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