How Recalled Previous Moral Decisions Influence Future Moral Decisions

Abstract

Previous studies in moral psychology have found that how one's moral identity is perceived by others is important; individuals want to maintain a moral identity that is considered admirable by others. The maintenance of moral identity requires a constant balancing of moral behaviors that maintain a level of homeostasis for the individual. Thus, people may engage in compensatory behaviors to keep their moral identity to others, as well as to themselves, intact. The present study builds on this body of research by replacing the hypothetical moral decisions utilized in past research with a real decision that has real-world consequences for participants. The hypothesis was that recall of past moral or immoral behavior would influence participants' present behaviors. Participants were asked to recall a previous moral or immoral decision about a behavior and then fill out a series of moral behavior questionnaires. The participants then had the opportunity to lie about how long the study took them to complete which would allow them to obtain more money or more credit. Although there was no evidence to support our hypothesis, there was an interesting trend toward significance in the influence of past decisions on scores on the moral behavior questionnaires; participants who recalled a past moral decision scored higher on the questionnaires than participants who recalled a past immoral decision.