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Hypocrisy in Moral Decision-Making*
Andrade, Gabrielle1; Wang, Ashley1; Groß Patricia2,3; Burga Tao4; Pons Erola2,5; Lieder, Emily6;
Glen Spiteri1; Zahra Tahmasebi1; Cheung Vanessa7; Maier Maximilian7; Lieder Falk1
1 Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States
2 Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany
3 Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
4 Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
5 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
6 Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
7 Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Abstract
Introduction: Hypocrisy can be defined as an individual holding others to a higher moral
standard than themself. By analyzing people’s positions about morally significant consequences,
we can understand how people interpret others’ actions compared to their own. Objectives: Our
research investigates whether people have higher standards for others’ moral decisions compared
to their own. Methods: We conducted an online study surveying 124 participants based in the
US. Participants were presented with one of eleven potential social dilemmas, and asked to
indicate consequences considered when making their decision, how much importance they
placed on each consequence, and how much importance they believed others should place on
each consequence. Preliminary and Expected Results: We predict people tend to care less
about morally significant consequences than how much they believe others should care about
these situations. We expect our data to show high expectations for how a participant believes
other people should behave in moral dilemmas compared to lower standards for their own
decision-making behavior. A pilot study showed participants considered very few consequences
(M = 1.9, SD = 1.6). Conclusions: By revealing forms of potential hypocrisies that exist in
altruistic decision-making processes, we can better understand how to mitigate biases in
decisions that affect well-being on a larger scale, ex. public policy. Our results may also have
implications for further research on how taking an outsider view may help mitigate these biases.
Keywords: Hypocrisy, morally significant consequences, decision-making, social dilemmas
* This is a preprint of an abstract we submitted to UCLA Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference (PURC)
in February 2024.