Schei Thea S, Sheikh Sana, Schnall Simone
Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2019 Sep 13;10:2103. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02103. eCollection 2019.
Previous research has shown that moral failures increase compensatory behaviors, such as prosociality and even self-punishment, because they are strategies to re-establish one's positive moral self-image. Do similar compensatory behaviors result from violations in normative eating practices? Three experiments explored the moral consequences of recalling instances of perceived excessive food consumption. In Experiment 1 we showed that women recalling an overeating (vs. neutral) experience reported more guilt and a desire to engage in prosocial behavior in the form of so-called self-sacrificing. In Experimental 2 this logic was applied to actual spontaneous helping behaviors toward an experimenter, with participants who recalled an overeating (vs. neutral) experience exhibiting more such helping in the laboratory. Experimental 3 expanded the investigation to self-inflicted pain: overeating (vs. neutral) recall led to higher levels of self-punishment as indicted by longer time periods spent engaging in the cold pressor task. In sum, failures in normative food consumption can be viewed as moral transgressions that elicits both interpersonal and intrapersonal compensatory behaviors aimed at restoring a positive moral self-image.
先前的研究表明，道德失误会增加补偿行为，比如亲社会行为甚至自我惩罚，因为它们是重建个人积极道德自我形象的策略。违反规范饮食行为会导致类似的补偿行为吗？三项实验探究了回忆感知到的过度饮食情况所产生的道德后果。在实验1中，我们发现，回忆起暴饮暴食（而非中性）经历的女性报告了更多的内疚感，以及以所谓自我牺牲形式参与亲社会行为的愿望。在实验2中，这种逻辑被应用于对实验者的实际自发帮助行为，回忆起暴饮暴食（而非中性）经历的参与者在实验室中表现出更多此类帮助行为。实验3将调查扩展到自我施加的痛苦：暴饮暴食（而非中性）回忆导致更高水平的自我惩罚，这表现为在冷加压任务中花费更长时间。总之，规范饮食行为的失误可被视为道德违规行为，会引发旨在恢复积极道德自我形象的人际和人际内补偿行为。
