Moral identity: A mediation model of moral disengagement and altruistic attitude

Abstract

We explored the relationships between college students' moral disengagement, moral identity, and altruistic attitude. Questionnaires assessing altruistic attitude, moral disengagement, moral identity, and real-life helping scenarios were used to survey 556 college students, of whom 130 were subsequently randomly selected to participate in an altruistic behavior experiment. Data were paired to verify consistency between altruistic behavior and attitude. The results show that moral disengagement was significantly negatively correlated with moral identity and altruistic attitude. Further, moral identity was a partial mediator of the relationship between moral disengagement and altruistic behavior, but not that between altruistic behavior and altruistic attitude. Because participants with a lower moral identity and less altruistic attitude had higher moral disengagement scores, we can conclude that the effect of diffusion of responsibility does exist.