Department of Psychology, Western University, Social Science Centre, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2012 Jul;38(7):907-19. doi: 10.1177/0146167212442394. Epub 2012 Apr 6.
According to the moral licensing literature, moral self-perceptions induce compensatory behavior: People who feel moral act less prosocially than those who feel immoral. Conversely, work on moral identity indicates that moral self-perceptions motivate behavioral consistency: People who feel moral act more prosocially than those who feel less so. In three studies, the authors reconcile these propositions by demonstrating the moderating role of conceptual abstraction. In Study 1, participants who recalled performing recent (concrete) moral or immoral behavior demonstrated compensatory behavior, whereas participants who considered temporally distant (abstract) moral behavior demonstrated behavioral consistency. Study 2 confirmed that this effect was unique to moral self-perceptions. Study 3 manipulated whether participants recalled moral or immoral actions concretely or abstractly, and replicated the moderation pattern with willingness to donate real money to charity. Together, these findings suggest that concrete moral self-perceptions activate self-regulatory behavior, and abstract moral self-perceptions activate identity concerns.
根据道德许可文献，道德自我认知会诱导补偿行为：感觉自己有道德的人比感觉自己不道德的人表现出更少的亲社会行为。相反，关于道德认同的研究表明，道德自我认知会激发行为的一致性：感觉自己有道德的人比感觉自己不太道德的人表现出更多的亲社会行为。在三项研究中，作者通过证明概念抽象的调节作用来调和这些观点。在研究 1 中，参与者回忆起最近（具体的）道德或不道德的行为时表现出补偿行为，而参与者考虑到时间上遥远（抽象的）道德行为时则表现出行为一致性。研究 2 证实，这种影响是道德自我认知特有的。研究 3 具体地或抽象地操纵了参与者回忆道德或不道德行为的方式，并通过捐赠真实货币给慈善机构的意愿复制了这种调节模式。总的来说，这些发现表明具体的道德自我认知会激活自我调节行为，而抽象的道德自我认知会引发身份关注。
