Guilt proneness moderates the after-effects of ego depletion on hypocrisy

Abstract

Moral hypocrisy occurs when people do not practice what they preach and when people judge others' transgressions more strictly than they judge their own transgressions. In two experiments, we explored how ego depletion and guilt proneness affect moral hypocrisy. Experiment 1 investigated intrapersonal moral hypocrisy, namely, “saying one thing and doing another.” Experiment 2 investigated interpersonal moral hypocrisy, namely, people judging their own transgressions as more acceptable than another's transgressions. In the two experiments, ego depletion was manipulated by the Stroop task, and guilt proneness was measured by the GP-5. We found that (a) ego depletion increased moral hypocrisy; the degree of moral hypocrisy in a high-depletion condition was significantly higher than that in a low-depletion condition, and this pattern was not manifested in individuals with high guilt proneness, that is, guilt proneness alleviated the after-effects of ego depletion on moral hypocrisy; and (b) guilt proneness eliminated moral hypocrisy. The degree of moral hypocrisy in individuals with high guilt proneness was significantly lower than that in individuals with low guilt proneness.