Hypocrites or maligned cooperative participants? Experimenter induced normative conflict in zero-sum situations

    Authors

    J. M. Fernandez-Dols; P. Aguilar; S. Campo; R. R. Vallacher; A. Janowsky; H. Rabbia; S. Brussino;M. J. Lerner

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.

    Keywords

    Moral hypocrisy; Self-interest; Justified self-interest; Supererogation; Social justice; Social norms; Morality; Normative conflict; MORAL HYPOCRISY; ALTERNATIVES; UNCERTAINTY; CHOICE; VIRTUE; Psychology, Social

    Abstract

    The failure to recognize the influence of two distinct forms of moral norms can lead to the misattribution of moral behavior to egoistic motives. This is illustrated in the research of Batson and his colleagues (e.g., Batson, Kobrynowicz, Dinnerstein, Kampf, & Wilson, 1997). They reported the appearance of moral failure and hypocrisy motivation in several experiments employing essentially the same "zero-sum" experimental situation. They cited as evidence the discrepancy between participants' apparently self-serving private acts and their subsequent public ratings of the morality of what they had clone as well as their recognition of the "most" moral way to behave. The research reported here supported an alternative explanation that located the experimenter's implicit and explicit instructions as the source of the discrepancy between the participants' private acts and their public ratings. The findings confirmed the hypothesis that Batson and his colleagues had not merely made moral norms "salient". They had actually presented their participants with contradictory "demands": explicitly inviting them to meet the norm of justified self-interest in private but then give public lip-service to the experimenter's instructions as to a supererogatory way to behave. When either of the demands was removed, the "hypocrisy" no longer occurred. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

    Volume

    46

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    525

    Last Page

    530

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000277218000005

    ISSN

    0022-1031

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