Is it Good to Feel Bad About Littering? Conflict between Moral Beliefs and Behaviors for Everyday Transgressions

35 Pages Posted: 22 Jul 2022

Abstract

People sometimes do things that they think are morally wrong. We investigate how actor’s perceptions of the morality of their own behaviors affects observers’ evaluations. In Study 1 (n = 302), we presented participants with six different descriptions of actors who routinely engaged in a morally questionable behavior and varied whether the actors thought the behavior was morally wrong. Actors who believed their behavior was wrong were seen as having better moral character, but their behavior was rated as more wrong. In Study 2 (n = 391) we investigated whether perceptions of actor metadesires were responsible for the effects of actor beliefs on judgments. We used the same stimuli and measures as in Study 1 but added a measure of the actor’s perceived desires to engage in the behaviors. As predicted, the effect of actors’ moral beliefs on judgments of their behavior and moral character was mediated by perceived metadesires.

Keywords: morality, moral judgment, metadesires, character

Suggested Citation

Schwartz, Stephanie A. and Inbar, Yoel, Is it Good to Feel Bad About Littering? Conflict between Moral Beliefs and Behaviors for Everyday Transgressions. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4169498 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4169498

Stephanie A. Schwartz

University of Toronto ( email )

105 St George Street
Toronto, M5S 3G8
Canada

Yoel Inbar (Contact Author)

University of Toronto ( email )

105 St George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8
Canada

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