Moral Self-regulation Research Articles

When moral identity harms: The impact of perceived differences in core values on helping and hurting

This research investigates moral self-regulatory individual differences and perceived differences in core moral-political values as predictors of helping and hurting behavior in liberals and conservatives. Study 1 (N = 249) demonstrated that self-reported liberals and conservatives do not differ on moral disengagement, moral identity, or trait aggression. Study 2 (N = 149) used an online version of the Tangram Task paradigm and showed that perceived differences in moral values: i) predict increased hurting and decreased helping behavior, ii) interact with moral identity to strengthen the relationship between moral disengagement and hurting behavior, and iii) are strongly correlated to perceived differences in political ideology. These patterns were similar for both liberals and conservatives. These studies demonstrate that moral identity does not unequivocally predict helping behavior, conservatism and liberalism do not predict willingness to harm one another, and that moral values are central to political values. The findings are discussed in relation to ideological conflict hypothesis and moral self-regulation literature, along with applied implications.

Why sabotage customers who mistreat you? Activated hostility and subsequent devaluation of targets as a moral disengagement mechanism.

We utilize the social intuitionist approach to moral judgment and moral disengagement theory to understand why and when employees sabotage customers. We contend that when customers mistreat employees (i.e., customer mistreatment), employees experience intuitive emotional reactions in the form of hostility, which automatically activates devaluation of targets, a specific facet of moral disengagement. In turn, employees become unencumbered by moral self-regulation and sabotage customers who mistreat them (i.e., customer-directed sabotage). We further argue that our serially mediated model is moderated by employees' perceptions of the organization's ethical climate. When ethical climates are perceived as being low, employees' hostile reactions toward misbehaving customers produce a positive relationship with devaluation of targets, and devaluation of targets results in a positive relationship with customer-directed sabotage. These positive relationships do not hold when ethical climate is perceived as being high. We test our theoretical model using a field sample of customer service employees and an experimental study to establish causality. Our results provide general support for our hypotheses. We discuss theoretical and practical implications and opportunities for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-other judgments of doping likelihood and anticipated guilt in hypothetical situations

ObjectivesSelf-other correspondence refers to people judging themselves to be similar to others. We were interested in determining whether athletes’ judgments of other athletes’ doping likelihood in hypothetical situations differed from judgments of their own doping likelihood in the same situations. Our aim was to examine self-other correspondence in doping likelihood, doping-related anticipated guilt, and the relationship between doping likelihood and moral traits. DesignUsing a within-participants design, doping likelihood and anticipated guilt were measured in hypothetical situations as a function of perspective (self, other). A questionnaire assessed moral traits. MethodAthletes (N = 156) rated their own and another athlete’s likelihood of doping and feelings of anticipated guilt in hypothetical situations. They also completed a questionnaire measuring moral agency, moral identity, moral perfectionism, moral values, moral disengagement and self-regulatory efficacy, collectively referred to here as moral traits. ResultsDoping likelihood was higher and anticipated guilt was lower for other compared to self ratings. Self-other differences in doping likelihood were mediated by self-other differences in anticipated guilt. Moral traits correlated more strongly with self than other doping likelihood. ConclusionsThe current study revealed self-other differences in doping likelihood, affective self-sanction of doping, and moral self-regulation of doping. These manifestations of self-other divergence reveal that the other-referenced method yields an overestimate of doping likelihood that is relatively disconnected from moral self-regulation.

Moral self-regulation, moral identity, and religiosity.

The association between religiosity and morality identified in self-reports has received limited support from studies of actual behavior. We propose that religiosity variables are likely to contribute to moral behavior in the context of moral self-regulation. Five studies examined the prediction that people who strongly endorse the items "I try hard to live all my life according to my religious beliefs" and "My whole approach to life is based on my religion" and people who report strong God belief would exhibit heightened moral emotions and prosocial behaviors after moral self-image (MSI) threats. Study 1 (N = 169) demonstrated that considering a recent moral transgression (the manipulation used in Studies 2-5) resulted in lower MSI, regardless of participants' levels of endorsement of religion-related items. Study 2 (N = 207) showed that following a threat to MSI, religiosity variables predicted heightened negative affect and self-conscious moral emotions. Studies 3 through 5 (combined N = 616) showed that following MSI threats, individuals endorsing intrinsic religiosity and God belief items showed increased prosocial task completion (Studies 3 and 5) and decreased cheating on a word-solving task (Study 4). Study 5 demonstrated that moral identity accounted for the role of religiosity variables in promoting moral self-regulation following MSI threat. Noting that these findings are limited to people representative of the participants in these samples (Mechanical Turk workers; University of Missouri undergraduate students), and to the precise measures and manipulations used, implications of these findings and constraints on their generalizability are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

APPLIED BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS: MORAL CLEANSING AND MORAL LICENSING IN A MARKETING CONTEXT

Companies frequently request their customers to donate to a charitable organization at some point during the purchasing process. Especially in an online environment, companies can easily control at which stage in the customer journey consumers are asked to give to charity. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the sequence of purchase and donation requests in the customer journey influences the willingness to donate to an NGO and the willingness to pay for the company’s product. As theoretical frame, we use two related concepts of moral self-regulation stemming from behavioral economics, namely moral licensing and moral cleansing. Based on these two cognitive biases, we assume that the sequence of donation and purchase options has an influence on the money individuals are willing to spend on the product and are willing to donate to charity. Prior research on moral licensing and moral cleansing often relies on outcomes from rather artificial study designs. Studies often utilize moral/immoral decision tasks, which consumers barely ever encounter in real life settings. In line with recent calls for replicating or validating established cognitive biases in settings that are more realistic, we apply both moral licensing and moral cleansing in a setting, which closely resembles real-life situations. Hence, our study contributes to the advancement of behavioral economics by offering outcomes with a higher degree of ecological validity. Participants (N=121) were asked to indicate the maximum amount of money they were willing to donate (WTD) for an environmental organization and the maximum amount of money they were willing to pay (WTP) for a newly launched smartphone. In condition A, participants were first presented with the donation task (moral licensing); in condition B, participants were first presented with the purchase task (moral cleansing). Our results indicate that the moral cleansing effect is present. On average, participants who first indicate their WTP are subsequently more prone to donating money to an NGO. We could not observe a moral licensing effect at large.

The effects of measurement basis and slack benefits on honesty in budget reporting

In this study, we experimentally investigate how managers' budget reporting behavior is influenced by two important features of the budgeting system: the measurement basis used in budget preparation (i.e., whether managers make budget reports in financial or nonfinancial measures) and managers' slack benefits in budget execution (i.e., whether managers benefit from budgetary slack directly or through an intermediate activity). While prior research suggests that moral self-regulation helps promote honest behavior, we predict that a financial measurement basis undermines moral self-regulation by strengthening the manager's desire to advance self-interest and that the absence of direct slack benefits undermines moral self-regulation by making misreporting more justifiable. We also predict that the effects of these two budgetary features on honesty are non-additive, due to the manager's diminishing marginal net utility from misreporting. Experimental results are consistent with our predictions. The implications of our findings for management accounting theory and practice are discussed.

Bad behavior keeps you up at night: Counterproductive work behaviors and insomnia.

Drawing from recent research on counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) and moral self-regulation literature, we examine the intraindividual consequences of engaging in CWB. We posit that CWB represents morally discrediting work behaviors that can lead to moral deficits, create distress for perpetrators and ultimately result in insomnia. Specifically, we hypothesized that on days in which employees engage in CWB, they will tend to experience moral deficits and heightened levels of rumination that undermine their sleep that night. Moreover, we hypothesized that these effects will be stronger for those who are high in moral identity internalization. Data from 2 within-individual field studies and 1 experimental study provided consistent support for most of our hypotheses. Overall, we found that by engaging in CWB employees can create problems for their own sleep health. (PsycINFO Database Record

Supplemental Material for Moral Self-Regulation, Moral Identity, and Religiosity

Supplemental Material for Moral Self-Regulation, Moral Identity, and Religiosity

An experimental analysis of moral self-regulation

ABSTRACTThis article examines the validity of the moral self-regulation hypothesis in a laboratory setting. The experiment is comprised of a public good game preceded or followed by a matrix task. The data show that the recall of an immoral action (cheating in the matrix task) motivates the individual to do morally right thing (contributing to group account) and the recall of a moral action (contributing to group account) motivates the individual to act out self-interest (cheating in the matrix task). Both moral licensing and moral cleansing hypotheses are confirmed by the results of the experiment. Additionally, the findings indicate that the subjects who had been given a chance to cheat ‘at first’ allocated more funds to the group account; and the subjects who had been given a chance to voluntarily contribute ‘at first’ cheated more in the matrix task.

Quando a violência virtual nos atinge: os programas de educação para a superação do cyberbullying e outras agressões virtuais

This bibliographical research, as Art State, which had as main point to describe and analyze educational programs, which try to prevent and reduce cyber aggression. To begin, we would use data basis as Scielo Bvs, Eric, Apa Phyc Net and Bireme, to look for scientific articles published from 2000 to 2015; otherwise, selecting empiric studies, which contain enough information about the programs, we decided to stay with them, and we had not found enough studies only about what we wanted in the data basis. We also got about our researches in books, thesis, essays and websites. Finally, it is composed by 19 fonts, used to describe five educational programs: PRIRES, CYBERTRAINING, KIVA, CONRED AND BEATBULLYING. The programs were described from categories: objectives, theoretical references, characteristics, contain, activities and tests; and analyzed in the point of view of moral psychology from Piaget, looking to identify if the practical are positive to students’ development and moral self-regulation. The results indicate that the PRIRES program corresponding to our analysis criteria. We believe the importance of the present investigation, because we presented the characteristics from many faces of virtual aggression, also, we analyzed educational interventions presented in literature to prevent and decrease these kinds of problem, by bringing implications that could base future actions to Brazilian schools.

Will Creative Employees Always Make Trouble? Investigating the Roles of Moral Identity and Moral Disengagement

Recent research has uncovered the dark side of creativity by finding that creative individuals are more likely to engage in unethical behavior. However, we argue that not all creative individuals make trouble. Using moral self-regulation theory as our overarching theoretical framework, we examine individuals’ moral identity as a boundary condition and moral disengagement as a mediating mechanism to explain when and how individual creativity is associated with workplace deviant behavior. We conducted two field studies using multi-source data to test our hypotheses. In Study 1, the results indicated that creativity positively predicted moral disengagement for those low in moral identity. In Study 2 with multi-wave data, we replicated the finding that moral identity moderated the effect of creativity on moral disengagement in Study 1 and further revealed that moral disengagement mediated the interactive effects of creativity and moral identity on workplace deviant behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Linking longitudinal dynamics of justice sensitivity and moral disengagement

Despite conceptual overlap between justice and morality, dispositional justice sensitivity (JS) has not been linked to processes of moral self-regulation. In a 1-year longitudinal study with four timepoints (N=515) we tested how intra-individual changes in JS (from the perpetrator and beneficiary perspectives) and dispositional moral disengagement (MD) were associated. Both JS perspectives were negatively correlated with the inclination to use MD strategies at each timepoint. There was also correlated change. Intraindividual changes in perpetrator and beneficiary JS between T1 and T2 were negatively correlated to intraindividual change in dispositional MD between T1 and T2. Moreover, intraindividual changes in beneficiary JS between T2 and T3 predicted intraindividual changes in MD between T3 and T4. Results are consistent with the proposition that these JS perspectives reflect the strength of internalized justice standards that render MD strategies ineffective for avoiding negative self-reactions.

Middle Adolescence’s Moral Self-regulation: Exploring the Effect of Private Self-worth on Prosocial Intentions

Middle Adolescence’s Moral Self-regulation: Exploring the Effect of Private Self-worth on Prosocial Intentions

Trust and Process Integration in Logistics Service Industry: An Empirical Study Focused on Moral Self-Regulation and Incentive Alignment between Logistics Service Providers and Shipper

Trust and Process Integration in Logistics Service Industry: An Empirical Study Focused on Moral Self-Regulation and Incentive Alignment between Logistics Service Providers and Shipper

Always looking for a moral identity: The moral licensing effect in men convicted of domestic violence

Abstract People who act in accord with moral standards enjoy a strong moral self-concept, but people with a strong moral concept do not always behave morally: sometimes they exhibit consistent behaviors and sometimes compensatory behaviors. Through two studies, this paper shows that people who do wrong enjoy a stronger moral self-concept and regulate their moral behavior accordingly. Specifically, men in court-mandated psychological treatment for having employed violence against their partners manage to preserve a very positive moral self-concept. They also exhibit moral self-regulation: when prompted to consider their high moral self-concepts, they recalled performing significantly more prosocial behaviors in the previous year (consistency effect), and immediately following this, they relaxed their future intentions to act in prosocial manners over the next year (licensing effect). This novel connection between intimate partner violence and moral regulation allows us to observe the dark side of feeling too moral in a sensitive sample.

Situating moral disengagement: Motivated reasoning in meat consumption and substitution

This work advances towards an increased understanding of moral disengagement and individual differences in the maintenance of widespread and cherished harmful behaviors. Drawing on meat consumption and substitution as an opportunity to study the process of moral self-regulation in situ, it presents a measure of selective deactivation of moral self-regulatory processes when considering the impact of meat consumption (i.e. the Moral Disengagement in Meat Questionnaire — MDMQ). The MDMQ developed from four sequential studies following a mixed-methods approach. Two preliminary studies (40 and 410 participants, respectively) provided input to develop the construct and initial pool of items. Two additional studies (1016 and 318 participants, respectively) allowed the assessment of item selection, factor structure, reliability, convergent and concurrent validities, predictive ability, and measurement invariance. The MDMQ was associated with a variety of individual differences concerning moral self-regulation (i.e. propensity to morally disengage; moral identity; empathy; moral emotions) and endorsement of dominance ideologies (i.e. social dominance orientation; speciesism; human supremacy beliefs). In a sequential mediation model, frequency of meat consumption affected willingness towards meat substitution indirectly via meat attachment and moral disengagement. We offer an interpretation of moral disengagement as a motivated reasoning process which is triggered by loss aversion and dissonance avoidance.

Commonsense Morality and the Ethics of Killing in War: An Experimental Survey of the Israeli Population

Abstract The morality of killing in war, which has been the subject of debate among philosophers and legal scholars, focuses on two main approaches: the “traditional” and the “revisionist.” The traditional approach argues for symmetry: soldiers of both sides are liable to be killed, whether or not the war they fight is just; civilians are immune from being harmed whether or not they are responsible for the evil against which the just side fights. Recently this approach has been challenged by a revisionist viewpoint, which derives the morality of killing in war from facts concerning the responsibility of individuals for wrongful threats. Killing soldiers, who fight a just war, is morally impermissible, whereas in certain cases killing civilians who are involved in an unjust aggression is permissible. The present study uses an experimental survey to examine whether moral attitudes toward targeting individuals in war are shaped by the factors underlying this debate: the cause of the war, the status of the targeted individuals as soldiers or civilians, and their involvement in the war effort. Respondents comprised a representative sample of the Jewish population in Israel. Our findings reveal a complex interplay between the factors, demonstrating the relevance of each factor to moral judgments. Notably, participants did not consider decisions on the battlefield to be independent of the justification of the war, a result which is consistent with the revisionist approach. We discuss the potential consequences of our findings on the understanding of commonsense morality and on the law. We also suggest that concepts derived from the social-psychological literature concerning moral self-regulation may help explain some of our findings.

The power of putting a label on it: green labels weigh heavier than contradicting product information for consumers' purchase decisions and post-purchase behavior.

Green products are appealing. Thus, labeling products as environmentally friendly is an effective strategy to increase sales. However, the labels often promise more than the products can actually deliver. In the present research, we examined the expectation that consumers with high ecological motivation have strong preferences for green-labeled products – even when presented product information contradicts the label’s image. This unsettling hypothesis is grounded in the labels’ potential to create a cognitive match between the labeled product and consumers’ motives. For labels indicating environmental friendliness (green product labels), this link should be strongest when consumers’ ecological motivation is high. Findings in a series of three experiments support our assumption, showing that consumers with high ecological motivation had strong preferences (i.e., product evaluations, purchase intentions, and simulated purchase decisions) for green-labeled products as compared to consumers with low ecological motivation (Studies 1–3). Crucially, these preferences were robust, despite contradicting environmental product information (Studies 1 and 2). We extended our findings by additionally examining the impact of product labels and motivation on moral self-regulation processes. This was established by assessing participants’ pro-social behavior after the purchase task: participants with high ecological motivation acted, consistent with their motives, more pro-socially in post-decision occasions. In accordance with moral cleansing effects, pro-social behavior was intensified after purchasing conventional products (Studies 2 and 3). Green labels protected participants with high ecological motivation from moral threats due to the purchase, thus making pro-social behavior less likely. Findings suggest that highly ecologically motivated consumers are most susceptible to green labels, which may override detailed product information.

Moral Identity and Moral Emotion Experience: a Cross-cultural Analysis

Despite the importance of individual's moral self-regulation at work, moral emotions as a self-regulation property have received sporadic attentions in the organizational wrongdoing context. Howeve...

Speaking truth to power: the effect of candid feedback on how individuals with power allocate resources.

Subordinates are often seen as impotent, able to react to but not affect how powerholders treat them. Instead, we conceptualize subordinate feedback as an important trigger of powerholders' behavioral self-regulation and explore subordinates' reciprocal influence on how powerholders allocate resources to them over time. In 2 experiments using a multiparty, multiround dictator game paradigm, we found that when subordinates provided candid feedback about whether they found prior allocations to be fair or unfair, powerholders regulated how self-interested their allocations were over time. However, when subordinates provided compliant feedback about powerholders' prior allocation decisions (offered consistently positive feedback, regardless of the powerholders' prior allocation), those powerholders made increasingly self-interested allocations over time. In addition, we showed that guilt partially mediates this relationship: powerholders feel more guilty after receiving negative feedback about an allocation, subsequently leading to a less self-interested allocation, whereas they feel less guilty after receiving positive feedback about an allocation, subsequently taking more for themselves. Our findings integrate the literature on upward feedback with theory about moral self-regulation to support the idea that subordinates are an important source of influence over those who hold power over them.