Religiosity and Moral Identity: The Mediating Role of Self-Control

Abstract

The ethics literature has identified moral motivation as a factor in ethical decision-making. Furthermore, moral identity has been identified as a source of moral motivation. In the current study, we examine religiosity as an antecedent to moral identity and examine the mediating role of self-control in this relationship. We find that intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of religiosity have different direct and indirect effects on the internalization and symbolization dimensions of moral identity. Specifically, intrinsic religiosity plays a role in counterbalancing the negative impact of extrinsic religiosity on the internalization of moral identity. Further, intrinsic religiosity also counterbalances the negative and indirect impact of extrinsic religiosity on symbolization of moral identity via self-control. Lastly, self-control does not play a mediating role in the impact of religiosity on the internalization dimension of moral identity. We conclude that this study presents important findings that advance our understanding of the antecedents of moral identity, and that these results may have implications for the understanding of ethical decision-making.

Is Students’ Religiosity Moderating Word of Mouth in Islamic Private Higher Education?

“…Religiosity that exists in students at private colleges Islamic religious background is not capable reinforce the students to do voluntary WOM marketing communications. Thus, both the higher education institutions in motivating students to perform WOM marketing communications simply by making the students feel satisfied with excellence service quality [56][57][58]. In other words, in a private college environment based on Islamic religion did not necessary to use a religiosity variable to leverage students' WOM marketing communications.…”

Controversial Advert Perceptions in SNS Advertising: The Role of Ethical Judgement and Religious Commitment

“…Allport and Ross (1967) outlined the intrinsic and extrinsic components of religious commitment, while Davidson and Knudsen (1977) distinguished between subjective and behavioural components of religious commitment. In this study, in line with previous research (e.g., Schneider, Krieger and Bayraktar, 2011;Vitell et al, 2008), we adopt the intrinsic and extrinsic religious commitment classification, and draw parallels between intra-personal and intrinsic religious commitment, as well as between inter-personal and extrinsic religious commitment. Intra-personal religious commitment motivates an individual to shape all aspects of his/her daily life in accordance with his/her religion; while inter-personal religious commitment motivates the individual to conform to the social conventions suggested by the particular religion (e.g., church attendance).…”

“…In particular, previous research draws attention to the link between religious commitment, mental health and social behaviour (Davidson and Knudsen, 1977;Gartner, 1996), religious orientation and prejudice (Allport and Ross, 1967), awareness (Conroy and Emerson, 2004), ethical beliefs (Vitell, Singh and Paolillo, 2006), moral identity (Vitell et al, 2008) as well as ethical judgement (Walker, Smither and DeBode, 2011;Wong, 2007). In particular, previous research argues that there is a strong link between religious commitment and concern for ethical standards (Hunt and Vitell, 2006), and suggests that those individuals with a high level of religious commitment place greater importance on moral absolutes than those with lower religious commitment (Hunt and Vitell, 1993).…”

Intrinsic Religiosity and Attitude toward Finales as Precursors of Superstitious Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

“…Intrinsic religiosity positively affects self-control and moral identity internalization (Vitell et al, 2009), and coping strategies mediate the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and competence (Hathaway and Pargament, 1990).…”