Bian Junfeng, Li Liang, Xia Xuan, Fu Xiaolan
Research Center of Social Governance Innovation, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China.
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 15;11:551625. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.551625. eCollection 2020.
Moral hypocrisy (MH) occurs when people fail to practice what they preach. Despite the prevalence of the effect of social identity on an individual's MH, few empirical studies have explored contextual factors that may help reduce MH. By conducting two experiments based on the research paradigm of real stranger presence, we examined how in-group and out-group strangers' presence and moral behavior may contribute to reducing MH. The results of experiment 1 demonstrated that compared with the presence of out-group strangers, the presence of in-group strangers could effectively inhibit MH (no significant difference between participants reported and actual donation proportions was obtained). The results of experiment 2 replicated and extended the results of experiment 1, first by showing that the presence of in-group strangers could effectively inhibit MH and then by revealing the influence of present strangers' behavior (moral or hypocritical) on MH. The results indicated that strangers' moral behavior could effectively eliminate participants' MH, especially in the presence of in-group strangers. However, when present strangers exhibited hypocritical behavior, they exhibited no effect on participants' MH, irrespective of the condition of in-group and out-group strangers. The current study provides empirical support for theories related to MH and moral decision-making and contributes to the literature on in-group and out-group effects on MH and decision-making.
当人们不能践行自己所宣扬的内容时，道德伪善（MH）就会出现。尽管社会身份对个体道德伪善的影响普遍存在，但很少有实证研究探讨可能有助于减少道德伪善的情境因素。通过基于真实陌生人在场的研究范式进行两项实验，我们考察了内群体和外群体陌生人的在场以及道德行为如何有助于减少道德伪善。实验1的结果表明，与外群体陌生人在场相比，内群体陌生人在场能有效抑制道德伪善（参与者报告的捐赠比例与实际捐赠比例之间无显著差异）。实验2的结果重复并扩展了实验1的结果，首先表明内群体陌生人在场能有效抑制道德伪善，然后揭示了在场陌生人的行为（道德或伪善）对道德伪善的影响。结果表明，陌生人的道德行为能有效消除参与者的道德伪善，尤其是在内群体陌生人在场的情况下。然而，当在场陌生人表现出伪善行为时，无论内群体和外群体陌生人的情况如何，他们对参与者的道德伪善都没有影响。本研究为与道德伪善和道德决策相关的理论提供了实证支持，并为关于内群体和外群体对道德伪善及决策影响的文献做出了贡献。
