The phenomenology of remembering our moral transgressions

Abstract

People tend to believe that they truly are morally good, and yet they commit moral transgressions with surprising frequency in their everyday lives. To explain this phenomenon, some theorists have suggested that people remember their moral transgressions with fewer details, lower vivacity, and less clarity, relative to their morally good deeds and other kinds of past events. These phenomenological differences are thought to help alleviate psychological discomfort and to help people maintain a morally good self-concept. Given these motivations to alleviate discomfort and to maintain a morally good self-concept, we might expect our more egregious moral transgressions, relative to our more minor transgressions, to be remembered less frequently, with fewer details, with lower vivacity, and with a reduced sense of reliving. More severe moral transgressions might also be less central to constructions of personal identity. In contrast to these expectations, our results suggest that participants' more severe moral transgressions are actually remembered more frequently, more vividly, and with more detail. More severe moral transgressions also tend to be more central to personal identity. We discuss the implications of these results for the motivation to maintain a morally good self-concept and for the functions of autobiographical memory.

The Moral Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses’ Burnout, Work Satisfaction and Adaptive Work Performance: The Role of Autobiographical Memories of Potentially Morally Injurious Events and Basic Psychological Needs

“…Also, the more severe the moral transgression, the better we recall it, especially when we perpetrated it [7]. This seems to occur even though recalling severe, self-perpetrated moral violations are accompanied by more intense negative affect and psychological distress than recalling more minor ones [7,8]. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that examine the effects of recalling memories of moral transgressions during which people perceived themselves as both victims and perpetrators [2], such as PMIEs.…”

Memory and Counterfactual Simulations for Past Wrongdoings Foster Moral Learning and Improvement

“…Several recent studies have shown that, when prompted to do so, people can readily recall having committed many different moral transgressions from their recent and distant pasts-some of which they even judge to be extremely morally wrong (Escobedo & Adolphs, 2010;Hofmann, Wisneski, Brandt, & Skitka, 2014;Stanley, Henne, Iyengar, Sinnott-Armstrong, & De Brigard, 2017. The process of retrieving these moral transgressions is commonly accompanied by intense negative affect and distress (Escobedo & Adolphs, 2010;Huang et al, 2020;Stanley et al, 2017). Critically, Huang et al (2020) found not only that people can readily recall their own moral transgressions they judge to be extremely morally wrong, but also that more severe moral transgressions are reportedly recalled more frequently (both voluntarily and involuntarily), with more detail, and with a stronger sense of reliving.…”

“…In contrast, other research suggests that people can and do readily recall many of their own past moral transgressions instead of forgetting them (Huang, Stanley, & De Brigard, 2020; Stanley & De Brigard, 2019; Stanley, Bedrov, Cabeza, & De Brigard, 2020). Several recent studies have shown that, when prompted to do so, people can readily recall having committed many different moral transgressions from their recent and distant pasts—some of which they even judge to be extremely morally wrong (Escobedo & Adolphs, 2010; Hofmann, Wisneski, Brandt, & Skitka, 2014; Stanley, Henne, Iyengar, Sinnott‐Armstrong, & De Brigard, 2017, 2019, 2020).…”

“…Several recent studies have shown that, when prompted to do so, people can readily recall having committed many different moral transgressions from their recent and distant pasts—some of which they even judge to be extremely morally wrong (Escobedo & Adolphs, 2010; Hofmann, Wisneski, Brandt, & Skitka, 2014; Stanley, Henne, Iyengar, Sinnott‐Armstrong, & De Brigard, 2017, 2019, 2020). The process of retrieving these moral transgressions is commonly accompanied by intense negative affect and distress (Escobedo & Adolphs, 2010; Huang et al., 2020; Stanley et al., 2017). Critically, Huang et al.…”

“…Critically, Huang et al. (2020) found not only that people can readily recall their own moral transgressions they judge to be extremely morally wrong, but also that more severe moral transgressions are reportedly recalled more frequently (both voluntarily and involuntarily), with more detail, and with a stronger sense of reliving. These findings suggest that people might readily and frequently recall many of their moral transgressions (especially those judged to be more severe)—even though remembering them tends to be negative, distressing, and threatening to their favorable self‐concepts.…”