Two mechanisms of biased responding account for the association between religiousness and misrepresentation in Big Five self-reports

Ludeke, Steven G.; Carey, Bridget E.

doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2015.03.003

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Whereas religiosity was positively correlated with ratings of the desirability of moral traits, it was unrelated to ratings of the desirability of competence traits and to self-ratings of competence traits. This finding is consistent with research showing that religious people primarily self-enhance on traits they strongly personally desire and value (Eriksson & Funcke, 2014; Gebauer et al, 2017; Ludeke & Carey, 2015).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…In Studies 1 and 3, we found that the association between religiosity and moral self-image was not fully accounted for by the mechanisms examined (though many of them independently partially mediated the association; see Table 3). Past studies have found that religious self-enhancement on warmth/agreeableness traits was fully accounted for by the perceived desirability of agreeableness and impression management (Ludeke & Carey, 2015) and the perceived warmth of one’s religious ingroup (self-stereotyping, Eriksson & Funcke, 2014). It would be valuable for future research to examine whether self-enhancement among the religious is especially strong on moral traits and whether similar mechanisms account for religious self-enhancement in different domains.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas impression management involves a tendency to exaggerate on a range of positive traits, self-enhancement is often more selectively focused on traits people find personally important. Religious people have been shown to view themselves as better than others—even than other religious people— on traits that they strongly personally value, like warmth and communality (Eriksson & Funcke, 2014; Gebauer, Sedikides, & Schrade, 2017; Ludeke & Carey, 2015; Rowatt et al, 2002). To the extent that morality is viewed as strongly desirable among people with high religiosity, ratings of moral traits should be especially subject to self-enhancement.…”

Section: Impression Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Moral stereotypes, moral self-image, and religiosity.

Ward

King

2021

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The precise mechanisms that account for the positive association between religion and self-reports of morality are uncertain. Three studies examined whether the association between religiosity and moral self-image was explained by perceptions of the morality of one's religious ingroup, beliefs that one needs religion to be moral, and impression management. In Study 1 (N ϭ 284), perceptions of the morality one's religious ingroup, impression management, the perceived desirability of moral traits, and selfreported prosocial behaviors all independently partially explained the religiosity-moral self-image link. Study 2 (N ϭ 593) demonstrated that religious people believe that engaging in religious behaviors and believing in God boosts one's morality. Study 3 (N ϭ 790) demonstrated that the association between religiosity and moral self-image was partially explained by impression management and perceptions of the morality of one's religious ingroup. These studies demonstrated a consistent association between religiosity and moral self-image, which was explained by both the perceived morality of one's religious ingroup and impression management.

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Impression Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Moral stereotypes, moral self-image, and religiosity.

Ward

King

2021

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We should also note that a number of recent studies (Ludeke and Carey 2015; Ludeke, Tagar, and DeYoung 2016; Ludeke, Weisberg, and DeYoung 2013) have pointed out that some personality traits may be viewed as desirable, which could lead people to report exaggerated levels of those traits. 22 To assess the possibility that measures of the personality traits we study here are correlated due to patterns of socially desirable responding, we regress political interest on all five traits with age and gender controls.…”

Section: Study Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 94%

The Relationship between Genes, Personality Traits, and Political Interest

Weinschenk

Dawes

2017

Political Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Political interest is one of the strongest predictors of individual political engagement, but little is known about the origins of this political orientation. The goal of this paper is to clarify the role that biological and psychological factors play in the formation of political interest. A series of recent studies in genetics have illustrated that political interest is heritable, and a series of recent studies in political science and psychology have demonstrated that personality traits, many of which are heritable, are related to political interest. In this paper, we make a number of contributions to the literature: (1) we replicate previous analyses showing that political interest and personality traits are heritable, (2) we demonstrate that personality traits are related to interest, and (3) we estimate the extent to which genetic factors account for the correlation between personality traits and political interest. Using two datasets on twins, we find evidence that genetic factors account for a large amount of the correlation between political interest and personality traits. This study provides a more nuanced picture of the biological and psychological bases of political orientations.

show abstract

“…Additionally, religion has been conceptualized as providing a means of self-enhancement (Sedikides & Gebauer, 2010). Research has shown that religious people view themselves as better than others on both nonmoral and moral characteristics (e.g., Gebauer, Sedikides, & Schrade, 2017; Ludeke & Carey, 2015; Rowatt, Ottenbreit, Nesselroade, & Cunningham, 2002) and even inflate their own intrinsic religiosity (Jones & Elliott, 2017). Thus, religious individuals may endorse moral traits and values in a socially desirable and self-enhancing fashion.…”

Section: Moral Self-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral self-regulation, moral identity, and religiosity.

Ward

King

2018

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The association between religiosity and morality identified in self-reports has received limited support from studies of actual behavior. We propose that religiosity variables are likely to contribute to moral behavior in the context of moral self-regulation. Five studies examined the prediction that people who strongly endorse the items "I try hard to live all my life according to my religious beliefs" and "My whole approach to life is based on my religion" and people who report strong God belief would exhibit heightened moral emotions and prosocial behaviors after moral self-image (MSI) threats. Study 1 ( = 169) demonstrated that considering a recent moral transgression (the manipulation used in Studies 2-5) resulted in lower MSI, regardless of participants' levels of endorsement of religion-related items. Study 2 ( = 207) showed that following a threat to MSI, religiosity variables predicted heightened negative affect and self-conscious moral emotions. Studies 3 through 5 (combined = 616) showed that following MSI threats, individuals endorsing intrinsic religiosity and God belief items showed increased prosocial task completion (Studies 3 and 5) and decreased cheating on a word-solving task (Study 4). Study 5 demonstrated that moral identity accounted for the role of religiosity variables in promoting moral self-regulation following MSI threat. Noting that these findings are limited to people representative of the participants in these samples (Mechanical Turk workers; University of Missouri undergraduate students), and to the precise measures and manipulations used, implications of these findings and constraints on their generalizability are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

show abstract

Two mechanisms of biased responding account for the association between religiousness and misrepresentation in Big Five self-reports

Cited by 11 publications

References 24 publications

Moral stereotypes, moral self-image, and religiosity.

Moral stereotypes, moral self-image, and religiosity.

The Relationship between Genes, Personality Traits, and Political Interest

Moral self-regulation, moral identity, and religiosity.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About