Other-serving double standards: People show moral hypercrisy in close relationships

Abstract

Extending research on self-serving double moral standards (hypocrisy), we examine the reverse pattern of other-serving hypercrisy toward close relationship partners. In three studies ( N = 1,019), for various imagined transgressions, people made more lenient moral judgments for their close friends (Studies 1 & 2) and romantic partners (Study 3) compared to themselves. This hypercrisy effect emerged both for transgressions toward third parties (Study 1) and toward each other (i.e., within the relationship; Studies 2 & 3). Moreover, it was moderated by perceptions of the relationship: Participants who more strongly believed their relationship to be a zero-sum game (i.e., needs can only be met competitively) showed greater leniency for themselves and attenuated hypercrisy for mutual transgressions (Studies 2 & 3). Investigating people’s close others rather than strangers as targets of moral judgment thus suggests that other-serving hypercrisy is more prevalent than previously thought, but sensitive to people’s conceptualizations of their relationships.

Responsibility Gaps and Self-interest Bias: People Attribute Moral Responsibility to AI for Their Own but not Others' Transgressions

“…It was unexpected but interesting that people even judged themselves more harshly than others (see also Dong et al, 2021;Lammers et al, 2010;Weiss & Burgmer, 2021) when they made a selfish choice after AI suggested such a choice as unethical. This effect contradicts some previous research on self-interest bias, but may point to AI as a potential force for good (Taddeo & Floridi, 2018).…”

The general factor of personality and moral hypocrisy: A moderated mediation model

“…Many studies have verified the existence of moral hypocrisy in school settings worldwide (Chvaja et al, 2020; Lindenberg et al, 2018; Lönnqvist et al, 2014; Shen & Liu, 2012; Tong & Yang, 2011). Moral hypocrisy damages personal reputations and interpersonal relationships (Weiss & Burgmer, 2021), destroys interpersonal trust (Jordan et al, 2017), and is detrimental to the development of moral values (Graham et al, 2015). Consequently, moral hypocrisy leads to negative interpersonal reactions (Effron et al, 2018) and moral condemnation (Dong et al, 2022).…”

“…The GFP, as a higher‐order trait of these five lower‐order personality traits (Musek, 2007), has also been shown to be positively associated with integrity (Van der Linden et al, 2014). As being deceptive and self‐interested are typical characteristics of moral hypocrisy (Monin & Merritt, 2012; Tang et al, 2018; Weiss & Burgmer, 2021), individuals with lower GFP scores may exhibit higher levels of moral hypocrisy than those with higher scores. Additionally, previous studies have found that the GFP is positively associated with self‐esteem (Pelt et al, 2020) and self‐concept (Rodriguez et al, 2020).…”

The experience of trust in everyday life

“…Sometimes, we may suspect we cannot rely on our interaction partners, or distrust their good intentions. Yet, trusting (vs. distrusting) others, whether strangers or close others, has pervasive implications for one's own prosocial and relationship-oriented attitudes and behavior [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Consequently, trust has been targeted from many different perspectives over the past decades, among these relationship and personality research, social cognition, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior [2,[10][11][12][13][14][15].…”