Bell Raoul, Schain Cécile, Echterhoff Gerald
Department of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Social Psychology Group, Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Cognition. 2014 Sep;132(3):437-42. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.05.001. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
We remember very well when another person has cheated us, but is this due to the cheating's immorality or due to its negative consequences? Theories claiming that reputational memory helps retaliate cheating imply that we should be sensitive both to the norm violation and to the personal consequences of another person's cheating. In the present study, faces were presented with descriptions of immoral and moral behavior. In contrast to previous studies, the morality and the personal consequences of the behaviors were orthogonally manipulated (both cheating and trustworthy behavior could lead to personal benefits or costs). In a surprise memory test, participants were required to remember whether the faces were associated with moral or immoral behaviors, or with personal benefits or costs. Overall, the morality of the behaviors was better remembered than were the personal consequences of the same behaviors. However, the immorality of morally questionable behaviors was well remembered when associated with personal costs, and poorly remembered when associated with personal benefits. Apparently, people's categorization of the social environment is based on moral judgments, but also reflects self-serving biases.
我们能清楚地记得别人何时欺骗了我们，但这是因为欺骗行为不道德，还是因为其负面后果呢？声称声誉记忆有助于报复欺骗行为的理论表明，我们应该既对违反规范的行为敏感，也对他人欺骗行为的个人后果敏感。在本研究中，呈现给参与者的面孔配有不道德和道德行为的描述。与之前的研究不同，行为的道德性和个人后果是正交操纵的（欺骗行为和值得信赖的行为都可能导致个人利益或代价）。在一个突击记忆测试中，参与者被要求记住面孔是与道德或不道德行为相关联，还是与个人利益或代价相关联。总体而言，行为的道德性比相同行为的个人后果更容易被记住。然而，当道德上有问题的行为与个人代价相关联时，其不道德性很容易被记住，而与个人利益相关联时则很难被记住。显然，人们对社会环境的分类基于道德判断，但也反映了自利偏差。
