道徳的偽善に関する研究 : Lammers (2012)の追試

Lammers (2012) reported that participants taking an abstract (vs. concrete) view tended to judge the immoral behavior of others more severely than the same behavior performed by themselves (i.e., moral hypocrisy). In the current study, we examined the effects of construal level (i.e., abstract vs. concrete mindset) on moral judgments in a sample of Japanese university students. In addition, we examined the effect of the individuals’ sense of power, which was previously found to influence moral hypocrisy (Lammers et al., 2010); people in powerful roles were found to be more strict in moral judgments of others’ behavior than their own behavior. However, in Experiment 1, we did not observe moral hypocrisy. Instead, regardless of the actors in scenarios, we found that participants in the abstract condition (vs. concrete condition) judged immoral behavior less severely. Moreover, participants with a greater sense of power were more likely to judge immoral behavior severely. The discrepancy between the current findings and those of previous studies might be related to the scenario used in the current study (stealing a bike in a public bicycle parking area). Participants may have been influenced by the concern of being watched by a third party. We conducted Experiment 2 to investigate the effects of the presence of a third party, but found no significant effects. The results are discussed in terms of the construal level manipulations and immoral behavior in the experimental scenarios.