Straying From the Righteous Path and From Ourselves: The Interplay Between Perceptions of Morality and Self-Knowledge. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The present research addresses the relationship between morally valenced behavior and perceptions of self-knowledge, an outcome that has received little attention in moral psychology. We propose that morally valenced behavior is related to subjective perceptions of self-knowledge, such that people experience lower levels of self-knowledge when they are reminded of their immoral behaviors. We tested this proposition in four studies ( N = 1,177). Study 1 used daily-diary methods and indicates that daily perceptions of self-knowledge covary with daily levels of morally valenced behavior. The final three studies made use of experimental methods and demonstrate that thinking about immoral behaviors attenuates current perceptions of self-knowledge. The predicted relationships and effects generally persist when controlling for self-esteem. Based on our findings, we argue that perceived self-knowledge may play a functional role in moral self-concept maintenance and moral regulatory processes.

published proceedings

  • Pers Soc Psychol Bull

altmetric score

  • 8.58

author list (cited authors)

  • Christy, A. G., Seto, E., Schlegel, R. J., Vess, M., & Hicks, J. A.

citation count

  • 32

complete list of authors

  • Christy, Andrew G||Seto, Elizabeth||Schlegel, Rebecca J||Vess, Matthew||Hicks, Joshua A

publication date

  • November 2016