The victim matters – experimental evidence on lying, moral costs and moral cleansing

ABSTRACT

In an experiment on moral cleansing with an endogenously manipulated moral self-image, we examine the role of the addressee of an immoral action. We find that cheating is highest and moral cleansing lowest when subjects cheat at the expense of the experimenter, while cheating is lowest and moral cleansing highest once cheating harms another participant. A subsequent measurement of subjects’ moral self-image supports our interpretation that the occurrence of moral cleansing crucially depends on the moral costs resulting from immoral actions directed at individuals in different roles. Our results can help to explain the different propensity to cheat and conduct moral cleansing when immoral actions harm either another person or representatives of organizations.

KEYWORDS:

• Dictator game
• laboratory experiments
• lying
• moral balancing
• moral cleansing

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C90
• C91
• D10

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ In the discussion on determinants of immoral behaviour, different complementary explanations have been presented, e.g. regarding personal characteristics (Cappelen, Sørensen, and Tungodden 2013; Fosgaard, Hansen, and Piovesan 2013; Gino et al. 2011; Gneezy 2005; Pascual-Ezama, Prelec, and Dunfield 2013; Shalvi and Leiser 2013), situational circumstances as, e.g., the anticipation of repercussions (Erat and Gneezy 2012; Gneezy, Rockenbach, and Serra-Garcia 2013) or the individually ascribed importance of the individual moral identity (Gino et al. 2011).

² Instructions and screenshots are available from the authors upon request.

³ Assuming that the population exclusively comprises strictly dishonest and honest people, the shares of cheaters can be estimated by assuming that the proportion of cheater equals 2p_h–1, whereby p_h is the share of high endowments claimed by subjects.