Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
J Pers. 2024 Jun;92(3):697-714. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12902. Epub 2023 Nov 28.
The psychological profile of the moral person might depend on whose perspective is being used. Here, we decompose moral impressions into three components: (a) Shared Moral Character (shared variance across self- and informant reports), (b) Moral Identity (how a person uniquely views their morality), and (c) Moral Reputation (how others uniquely view that person's morality).
In two samples (total N = 458), we used an extended version of the Trait-Reputation-Identity model to examine the extent to which each perspective accounts for the overall variance in moral impressions and the degree to which social and personal outcomes were associated with each perspective, controlling for method variance (i.e., positivity and acquiescence bias).
Results suggest that moral character impressions are strongly influenced by positivity and largely idiosyncratic. All components were related to higher levels of agreeableness. For the most part, however, the three components had unique correlates: people higher in Shared Moral Character tended to have higher standings on conscientiousness and honesty-humility, were more respected, and donated more during an in-lab game; people higher in Moral Identity endorsed various moral foundations to a greater extent; and people higher in Moral Reputation valued the loyalty foundation less.
These results demonstrate the value of considering multiple perspectives when measuring moral character.
道德人的心理特征可能取决于所采用的视角。在这里，我们将道德印象分解为三个组成部分：(a) 共同道德特征（自我报告和信息提供者报告之间的共同差异），(b) 道德认同（一个人如何独特地看待自己的道德），和 (c) 道德声誉（他人如何独特地看待该人的道德）。
在两个样本（总 N=458）中，我们使用特质-声誉-认同模型的扩展版本来检验每个视角在多大程度上解释了道德印象的总体差异，以及在多大程度上控制了方法偏差（即积极性和默许偏差）后，社会和个人结果与每个视角相关。
结果表明，道德特征印象受到积极性的强烈影响，并且在很大程度上是特质性的。所有组成部分都与更高的宜人性水平相关。然而，在大多数情况下，这三个组成部分具有独特的相关性：具有更高共同道德特征的人往往在尽责性和诚实-谦逊方面得分更高，更受尊重，并且在实验室游戏中捐赠更多；具有更高道德认同的人更广泛地认可各种道德基础；而具有更高道德声誉的人则较少重视忠诚基础。
这些结果表明，在衡量道德特征时，考虑多个视角是有价值的。
