The self-importance of moral identity

Does Embodying a Divine Avatar Influence Moral Decisions? An Immersive Virtual Reality Study

The term Proteus effect refers to the changes in attitudes and behavior induced by the characteristics of an embodied virtual agent. Whether the effect can extend to the moral sphere is currently unknown. To deal with this issue, we investigated if embodying virtual agents (i.e., avatars) with different characteristics modulate people's moral standards differentially. Participants were requested to embody an avatar resembling the Christian God in His anthropomorphic appearance or a control human avatar and to perform a text-based version of incidental and instrumental dilemmas in a virtual environment. For each participant, we recorded (1) chosen options (deontological vs. utilitarian), (2) decision times, (3) postdecision feelings, and (4) physiological reactions (skin conductance response and heart rate). We found that embodying God vs. a control avatar did not change the performance in the moral dilemma task, indicating that no strong Proteus effect was at play in our experimental conditions. We interpreted this result by examining the constraints and limitations of our task, reasoning about the necessary conditions for eliciting the Proteus effect, and discussing future developments and advances in the field. Moreover, we presented compelling effects concerning dilemma type, chosen option, personality traits, and religion affiliation, thus supporting and extending literature on decision making in moral dilemmas.

Consensus, controversy, and chaos in the attribution of characteristics to the morally exceptional

OBJECTIVE

What do people see as distinguishing the morally exceptional from others? To handle the problem that people may disagree about who qualifies as morally exceptional, we asked subjects to select and rate their own examples of morally exceptional, morally average, and immoral people.

METHOD

Subjects rated each selected exemplar on several enablers of moral action and several directions of moral action. By applying the logic underlying stimulus sampling in experimental design, we evaluated perceivers' level of agreement about the characteristics of the morally exceptional, even though perceivers rated different targets.

RESULTS

Across three studies, there was strong subjective consensus on who is morally exceptional: those who are empathetic and prone to guilt, those who reflect on moral issues and identify with morality, those who have self-control and actually enact moral behaviors, and those who care about harm, compassion, fairness, and honesty. Deep controversies also existed about the moral directions pursued by those seen as morally exceptional: People evaluated those who pursued similar values and made similar decisions more favorably.

CONCLUSION

Strong consensus suggests characteristics that may push a person to go beyond normal expectations, that the study of moral exceptionality is not overly hindered by disagreement over who is morally exceptional, and that there is some common ground between disagreeing camps.

Beneficial effects of communicating intentions when delivering moral criticism: Cognitive and neural responses

People often do not accept criticism on their morality, especially when delivered by outgroup members. In two preregistered studies, we investigated whether people become more receptive to such negative feedback when feedback senders communicate their intention to help. Participants received negative feedback from ostensible others on their selfish (rather than altruistic) decisions in a donation task. We manipulated the identity of a feedback sender (ingroup vs. outgroup) and the intention that they provided for giving feedback. A sender either did not communicate any intentions, indicated the intention to help the feedback receiver improve, or communicated the intention to show moral superiority. We measured participants' self-reported responses to the feedback (Study 1, N = 44) and additionally recorded an EEG in Study 2 (N = 34). Results showed that when no intentions were communicated, participants assumed worse intentions from outgroup senders than ingroup senders (Study 1). However, group membership had no significant effect once feedback senders made their intentions explicit. Moreover, across studies, when feedback senders communicated their intention to help, participants perceived feedback as less unfair compared with when senders tried to convey their moral superiority. Complementing these results, exploratory event-related potential results of Study 2 suggested that communicating the intention to help reduced participants' attentional vigilance toward negative feedback messages on their morality (i.e., decreased P200 amplitudes). These results demonstrate the beneficial effects of communicating the intention to help when one tries to encourage others' moral growth through criticism.

Development and classification of autonomous vehicle's ambiguous driving scenario

Human drivers are gradually being replaced by highly automated driving systems, and this trend is expected to persist. The response of autonomous vehicles to Ambiguous Driving Scenarios (ADS) is crucial for legal and safety reasons. Our research focuses on establishing a robust framework for developing ADS in autonomous vehicles and classifying them based on AV user perceptions. To achieve this, we conducted extensive literature reviews, in-depth interviews with industry experts, a comprehensive questionnaire survey, and factor analysis. We created 28 diverse ambiguous driving scenarios and examined 548 AV users' perspectives on moral, ethical, legal, utility, and safety aspects. Based on the results, we grouped ADS, with all of them having the highest user perception of safety. We classified these scenarios where autonomous vehicles yield to others as moral, bottleneck scenarios as ethical, cross-over scenarios as legal, and scenarios where vehicles come to a halt as utility-related. Additionally, this study is expected to make a valuable contribution to the field of self-driving cars by presenting new perspectives on policy and algorithm development, aiming to improve the safety and convenience of autonomous driving.

Moral beacons: Understanding moral character and moral influence

OBJECTIVE

We introduce the concept of moral beacons-individuals who are higher in moral character than their peers and prominent within their social environment-and examine the degree to which moral beacons increase the moral awareness of their peers.

BACKGROUND

Using data from cohorts of students in graduate business education across two universities, we applied theory and methods from organizational behavior, personality psychology, and social networks analysis to test two research questions about moral beacons.

METHOD

We used latent profile analysis of data from personality questionnaires and social network surveys completed by graduate business students at two universities (N = 502) to identify individuals classified as moral beacons. We used peer nominations and an in-class business case discussion exercise to assess moral influence.

RESULTS

Latent profile analysis identified a latent class of moral beacons in our sample. These individuals received more nominations from their peers in end-of-class surveys as guides for moral thought and action and positively impacted the moral awareness of their peers in a discussion of a difficult business case about possible lead poisoning of employees, but did not significantly change their counterparts' moral awareness in a different case.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide promising initial evidence that moral beacons can be distinguished from their peers by both moral character and social prominence and can act as guides for others, at times encouraging greater consideration of the moral aspects of situations and decisions. As these results are the first of their kind, we encourage further replication and investigations of moral beacons and moral influence in other settings.

Nostalgia increases punitiveness by intensifying moral concern

We addressed the relation between nostalgia and moral judgment or behavior. We hypothesized that nostalgia, a social emotion, increases moral concern (H1), nostalgia intensifies punitiveness against moral transgressors (H2), and that the nostalgia-punitiveness link is mediated by moral concern (H3). We conducted three cross-sectional (Studies 1, 2, 4) and one experimental (Study 3) investigations (N = 1145). The investigations, involving distinct operationalizations of the relevant constructs (nostalgia, moral concern, punitiveness) and diverse samples (U.S., Canadian, and European Prolific workers, French business school students, Dutch community members), yielded results consistent with the hypotheses. Nostalgia keeps one's moral compass in check. The findings enrich the emotions and morality literatures.

Adolescents High in Callous-Unemotional Traits are Prone to be Bystanders: The Roles of Moral Disengagement, Moral Identity, and Perceived Social Support

Bystanders are the most common role that adolescents play in bullying episodes, they have considerable influence on the formation of the victim's experience and the perpetrator's behavior. Based on the social-cognitive model, the current study examined the mediating role of moral disengagement in the association between callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior and the moderating roles of moral identity and perceived social support. Participants included 2,286 Chinese adolescents aged 11-16 years (49.3% boys; Mage = 13.46, SDage = 0.93). The study showed callous-unemotional traits were significantly and positively associated with bystander behavior and this relation was partially mediated by moral disengagement. Moral identity moderated the relation between callous-unemotional traits and moral disengagement as well as callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior. Perceived social support moderated in the direct and indirect associations between callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior via moral disengagement. The relation between callous-unemotional traits and moral disengagement and the relation between callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior became weaker for adolescents with high perceived social support. Surprisingly, the relation between moral disengagement and bystander behavior became stronger for adolescents with a high level of perceived social support. The results supported two specific patterns of perceived social support: stress-buffering and reverse stress-buffering. The present study contributes to our understanding of the key mechanisms underlying the association between callous-unemotional traits and adolescents' bystander behavior.

Social class and moral judgment: a process dissociation perspective

Do social classes differ in moral judgment? Previous research showed that upper-class actors have a greater inclination toward utilitarian judgments than lower-class actors and that this relationship is mediated by empathic concern. In this paper, we take a closer look at class-based differences in moral judgment and use the psychometric technique of process dissociation to measure utilitarian and deontological decision inclinations as independent and orthogonal concepts. We find that upper-class actors do indeed have a greater inclination toward decisions consistent with utilitarian principles, albeit only to a quite small extent. Class-related differences are more pronounced with respect to deontological judgments, in so far as upper-class actors are less inclined to judgments consistent with deontological principles than lower-class actors. In addition, it is shown that class-based differences in utilitarian judgments are mediated by cognitive styles and not so much by empathic concern or moral identity. None of these potential mediators explains class-based differences in the inclination toward deontological judgments.

Amplified PTSD Symptoms From Self-Attributed Moral Transgressions are Linked to Internalized Moral Identity During Military Deployment

INTRODUCTION

Military personnel frequently experience stressful, morally challenging situations that can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The relationships between moral identity, transgressive acts, and symptoms related to posttraumatic stress disorder (i.e., posttraumatic stress symptoms; PTSS) among U.S. Army Soldiers were assessed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A convenience cohort of 1,547 soldiers completed a survey assessing moral identity and PTSS before deployment. A subset of 505 soldiers completed another survey assessing transgressive acts and PTSS during deployment. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the underlying factor structure of the measures of moral identity and transgressive acts. Generalized linear modeling, robustness checks, and sensitivity analysis were used to evaluate the predictive relationships.

RESULTS

Moral identity did not directly predict PTSS during deployment. However, self-attributed and betrayal-based transgressive acts were significant predictors. Specifically, self-attributed transgressive acts and PTSS were moderated by internalized moral identity; individuals with a higher internalized moral identity experienced more severe PTSS following self-attributed transgressive acts. These findings were consistent across various model checks, including covariate adjustments, data imputation, and the application of a data quality filter.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights the significant role of self-attributed moral transgressions during deployment in the development of PTSS among military service members-especially in those with a strong internalized moral identity. This finding suggests a "target of opportunity" for the development of intervention strategies that mitigate PTSS by addressing the moral dimensions of military service.

Impacts of Unethical Behavior on Self-Esteem: A Contingent Dual-Process Model

Previous studies have reported mixed findings on how and why unethical behavior affects self-esteem. To address this issue, a contingent dual-process model is proposed and tested. The model postulates a negative impact of unethical behavior on self-esteem through decreased morality, a positive effect through increased competence, and the relative strength of these two paths depending on system-justifying motives. Studies using unethical behavior for self-interest (Studies 1 and 2), involving ingroup interest (Study 3), and measuring (Studies 1 and 3) and manipulating general system justification (Study 2) provide support for the model. By identifying the effects of system-justifying motives and linking the two competing paths, the model reconciles inconsistencies in previous research regarding how self-esteem is influenced by unethical behavior and reveals the underlying mechanism of this association. Accordingly, the current research constructs a motivational and superordinate framework to clarify the dynamic consequences of unethical behavior.

Unveiling the Paradox of Selflessness: Exploring Perceptions of Hypocrisy and Priority Outgroup in Intergroup Moral Dilemmas

Purpose

This study examines the impact of prioritizing the out-group in intergroup moral dilemmas. The research aims to achieve three primary objectives: 1) investigating the relationship between out-group prioritization and perceptions of hypocrisy, 2) exploring the influence of perceived hypocrisy and negative emotions on moral judgments, and 3) uncovering the underlying reasons for perceiving outgroup prioritization as hypocritical.

Methods

Experiments 1, 2 and 3 involved presenting Chinese participants with out-group rescuers and in-group rescuers and asking them to rate the two on three dimensions: level of hypocrisy, level of morality, and negative emotions toward the rescuers. In Experiment 3, the degree of similarity between participants and rescuers was manipulated to control for the level at which participants projected their own intrinsic motivations (ie, self-interest) onto the rescuers.

Results

Experiments 1 and 2 jointly showed that participants perceived the out-group rescuer as more hypocritical and immoral compared to the in-group rescuer, and that participants had stronger negative emotions toward the out-group rescuer. Mediation analysis also demonstrated that the perception of hypocrisy and negative emotions largely mediated the relationship between the different rescuers and participants' evaluation of the rescuers' morality. In Experiment 3, participants gave higher hypocrisy ratings to high projection out-group rescuers compared to low projection out-group rescuers.

Conclusion

In intergroup dilemmas, choosing to sacrifice the in-group to rescue the outgroup is perceived as more hypocritical, immoral, and objectionable. Perceived hypocrisy arises from an incongruity between individuals' subjective judgments of the rescuers' self-interest motives and the altruistic choice made by the rescuers to rescue the out-group.

I Treated the Way You Treated Me: The Effect of Leader Hypocrisy on Employees' Voice Behavior

Purpose

In recent years, due to the increasingly prominent role of voice behavior in leader decision-making and organizational performance, such behavior has become a central topic for scholars. A majority of studies explore the "uphold" effects of multiple leader behavior toward the voice behavior; nonetheless, our study revealed the "undo" effect --- leader hypocrisy on voice behavior. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we investigated the relationship between leader hypocrisy and voice behavior, examined the mediating effects of cognition-based trust and affect-based trust, and the moderating effect of moral identity.

Patients and Methods

We conducted a three-wave survey in a large Chinese corporation to test the hypothesized model. We collected 562 employees to participate in this survey.

Results

The results show that leader hypocrisy negatively impacts employees' cognition-based and affect-based trust, and both types of trust mediate the relationship between leader hypocrisy and voice behavior, respectively. In the meantime, moral identity manifested the negative effect of leader hypocrisy on cognition-based and affect-based trust.

Conclusion

Our research not only enriches the related research on leader hypocrisy and voice behavior but also uncovers the underlying mechanism through which leader hypocrisy affects voice behavior and the boundary conditions of this effect. Meanwhile, our research provides a theoretical reference for increasing employees' voice behavior and promoting the healthy development of enterprises.

Beyond Trolleyology: The CNI Model of Moral-Dilemma Responses

PUBLIC ABSTRACT

How do people make judgments about actions that violate moral norms yet maximize the greater good (e.g., sacrificing the well-being of a small number of people for the well-being of a larger number of people)? Research on this question has been criticized for relying on highly artificial scenarios and for conflating multiple distinct factors underlying responses in moral dilemmas. The current article reviews research that used a computational modeling approach to disentangle the roles of multiple distinct factors in responses to plausible moral dilemmas based on real-world events. By disentangling sensitivity to consequences, sensitivity to moral norms, and general preference for inaction versus action in responses to realistic dilemmas, the reviewed work provides a more nuanced understanding of how people make judgments about the right course of action in moral dilemmas.

Why does a leader's other-oriented perfectionism lead employees to do bad things? Examining the role of moral disengagement and moral identity

Introduction

Moral disengagement is an essential concept in organizational behavioral ethics, as it is strongly related to employee behaviors and attitudes. What is not clear, however, is which leader traits are directly associated with employees' moral disengagement and which are indirectly associated with unethical behavior. This study draws on a social cognitive perspective that links leaders' other-oriented perfectionism (LOOP) with unethical employee behavior. Specifically, we propose that LOOP provides employees with excuses and encouragement to engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB).

Methods

We analyzed data collected from 266 full-time employees at two-time points, and used mediated and moderated structural equation models to test the hypotheses, and the findings largely support our claims.

Results

The results suggest that LOOP effectively promotes employees' involvement in UPB. Moderated mediation tests suggest that the positive indirect impact of LOOP on employees' unethical behavior via moral disengagement was attenuated by higher employees' moral identity.

Discussion

In summary, the results indicate that when leaders emphasize only perfection and make unrealistic demands on their employees, the latter perceive that engaging in unethical behavior is demanded by the leader, that the responsibility is not theirs, and thus they are more willing to engage in unethical behavior. This study discusses the implications of these findings from both practical and theoretical perspectives.

Good learners or trouble makers? Study on the relationship between academic performance and antisocial behavior of junior high school students

The school bullying incident has aroused widespread concern in current society. How to manage students' anti-social behavior has become an increasingly serious problem for administrators. This study uses a sample of 8270 junior high school students to examine the mechanism of academic achievement on students' antisocial behavior. The results showed that academic performance has a U-shaped impact on antisocial behavior. This study further found that the U-shaped effect of academic performance on antisocial behavior was mediated by the praise; In addition, this study also found that moral identity moderates the U-shaped relationship between academic performance, praise, and antisocial performance. The findings provide the implications for school administrators and teachers to pay attention to the "moral trap" of academic achievement and praise, and pay attention to excellent students' moral education, to reduce the possibility of their anti-social behavior.

Behavioral evidence for global consciousness transcending national parochialism

While national parochialism is commonplace, individual differences explain more variance in it than cross-national differences. Global consciousness (GC), a multi-dimensional concept that includes identification with all humanity, cosmopolitan orientation, and global orientation, transcends national parochialism. Across six societies (N = 11,163), most notably the USA and China, individuals high in GC were more generous allocating funds to the other in a dictator game, cooperated more in a one-shot prisoner's dilemma, and differentiated less between the ingroup and outgroup on these actions. They gave more to the world and kept less for the self in a multi-level public goods dilemma. GC profiles showed 80% test-retest stability over 8 months. Implications of GC for cultural evolution in the face of trans-border problems are discussed.

Unveiling the Mechanisms through Which Leader Integrity Shapes Ethical Leadership Behavior: Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective

Leadership integrity is crucial in shaping ethical leadership or promoting a rigorous adherence to moral principles and standards. This study explores the intricate relationship between leader integrity, moral identification, self-regulation, and ethical leadership behavior, providing practical insights for healthcare leaders seeking to enhance ethical practices. It addresses a critical gap in the research landscape by focusing on individual-level ethical leadership within the healthcare sector, where prior investigations have been limited. This study examines the mediating role of moral identification among leader integrity and ethical leadership behavior. We surveyed 181 health sector workers and employed SmartPLS to assess the conceptualized relationships. The analyses reveal a significant indirect influence of leader integrity on ethical leadership behavior, whereas moral identification mediates the relationship. Our findings further indicate an intriguing moderation effect of self-regulation on the relationship between moral identification and ethical leadership behavior. This divergence from previous research underscores the significance of contextual and methodological factors in studying leadership integrity and ethical behavior. Our study contributes to the literature on the relationship through planned behavior theory by demonstrating that moral identification mediates the relationship between leader integrity and ethical leadership behavior in the context of the theory of planned behavior. Our findings underscore the significance of fostering leader integrity within organizations to indirectly promote ethical leadership behaviors through moral identification. Organizations should prioritize initiatives that cultivate moral identification among their members to enhance ethical cultures.

"I RUN CLEAN Project"-An Innovative and Self-Sustainable Approach to Develop Clean Sport Behaviours in Grassroots Athletes

The phenomenon of doping is a public health issue that poses threats to sport and society. In recent decades, the emphasis on efforts to address the issue and reduce the incidence of doping by young people in sport has shifted from deterrence through testing and punishment to the promotion of clean sport behaviours through values-based education. The "I Run Clean project" sought to develop new and effective tools targeting grassroots athletes and those around them (coaches, medical support personnel, sport leaders, parents). These included sport-specific e-learning and in-person peer-to-peer workshops led by trained volunteer ambassadors. The aim of all "I Run Clean" measures is to go beyond the warnings and provision of factual information about early anti-doping campaigns to a more holistic educational approach that focuses participants on their personal and sport-related values in order to encourage good decision-making and resistance to doping-related behaviours. This study evaluates the efficacy of the peer-to-peer workshops and their impact on selected psycho-social variables. The collaboration of the volunteer ambassadors is shown to effectively transmit the desired reasoning, reduce doping risk factors and enhance protective factors.

Humor appreciation can be predicted with machine learning techniques

Humor research is supposed to predict whether something is funny. According to its theories and observations, amusement should be predictable based on a wide variety of variables. We test the practical value of humor appreciation research in terms of prediction accuracy. We find that machine learning methods (boosted decision trees) can indeed predict humor appreciation with an accuracy close to its theoretical ceiling. However, individual demographic and psychological variables, while replicating previous statistical findings, offer only negligible gains in accuracy. Successful predictions require previous ratings by the same rater, unless highly specific interactions between rater and joke content can be assessed. We discuss implications for humor research, and offer advice for practitioners designing content recommendations engines or entertainment platforms, as well as other research fields aiming to review their practical usefulness.

Beyond the universal perception: Unveiling the paradoxical impact of ethical leadership on employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior

Ethical leadership, widely recognized as a positive leadership style, has shown inconsistent relationships with employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior in the workplace. This study draws on the social cognitive theory to investigate the paradoxical impact of ethical leadership on employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior. It also examines the mediating role of employees' psychological empowerment and the moderating effect of moral identity. The study collects data from 515 nursing staff working in public and private hospitals in Pakistan at three different time intervals, and analyzed using PLS SEM. Contrary to the previous studies and our initial hypothesis, the findings reveal a positive relationship between ethical leadership and employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior. Additionally, the study demonstrates that employees' psychological empowerment positively mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior. This underscores the significance of employees' psychological processes. Furthermore, the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' psychological empowerment is moderated by employees' moral identity. This highlights the role of the individual differences in shaping employees' behavior within the workplace. Overall, these results challenge the universal perception of ethical leadership as a positive form of leadership, shedding light on the unintended consequences and paradoxical impact it can have in organizations.

A Closer Examination of the Integrity Scale's Construct Validity

People's commitment to moral principles affects how they self-regulate and directs people down different ethical paths. The Integrity Scale was designed to assess the strength of people's commitment to moral principles. Here, we sought to contribute to evaluating the construct validity of the Integrity Scale. We related the scale to various theoretically relevant criteria including low antagonism features, social-cognitive foundations for morality, self-control, rationality, and self-presentation behavior. Suggestive of the scale's construct validity, the present research showed that scores on the Integrity Scale related to (a) reduced antagonistic-personality features relevant to exploitation and dishonesty more so than immodesty, tough-heartedness, fearlessness, or cynicism; (b) enhanced social-cognitive skills (e.g., cognitive empathy processes); (c) enhanced self-control; (d) enhanced capacities for and reliance on rationality in decision making (e.g., intelligence and cognitive-reflection skill); and (e) enhanced reliance on self-presentation tactics that portray an identity based in high levels of integrity.

Positive impacts of perceived social support on prosocial behavior: the chain mediating role of moral identity and moral sensitivity

The relationship between mental health and perceived social support has been well-established in previous studies. While previous research indicates that perceived social support is related to prosocial behavior, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. In order to address this gap, a recent study investigated the mediating effects of moral identity and moral sensitivity on the relationship between perceived social support and prosocial behavior. Specifically, the study surveyed 978 college students using a questionnaire to examine the relationship between these variables. The results of the study showed that, after controlling for gender and age, perceived social support, moral identity, and moral sensitivity were significantly and positively correlated, all of which were also significantly and positively related to prosocial behavior. In addition, the study found that perceived social support was able to influence prosocial behavior through both independent mediation by moral identity and moral sensitivity, as well as through chain mediation. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the factors that shape prosocial behavior and offer suggestions for promoting such behavior in individuals.

The Oxford Utilitarianism Scale: Psychometric properties of a French adaptation (OUS-Fr)

It is well established that one's sense of morality may be readily influenced by one's culture, education, and life situation. Very few psychometric tools are currently available to measure facets of human morality in different cultures. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to develop a French adaptation of the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale (OUS-Fr) and formally evaluate its validity. The OUS-Fr was developed through a process of back-translation and administered to a sample of 552 participants. Results from exploratory factor analyses revealed a bidimensional structure with satisfactory loadings that was then also supported in the confirmatory factor analysis check. The OUS-Fr scale demonstrated good psychometric properties, with acceptable internal consistency and coherent results in the convergent validity analyses. These findings contribute to morality measurement literature by providing evidence for the reliability and validity of the French adaptation of the OUS. The OUS-Fr can be viewed as a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners for assessing utilitarian tendencies within the French-speaking population, which could pave the way for cross-cultural understandings that are important for fully understanding the intricacies of human morality.

Do contemplative practices make us more moral?

Contemplative practices are a staple of modern life and have historically been intertwined with morality. However, do these practices in fact improve our morality? The answer remains unclear because the science of contemplative practices has focused on unidimensional aspects of morality, which do not align with the type of interdependent moral functioning these practices aspire to cultivate. Here, we appeal to a multifactor construct, which allows the assessment of outcomes from a contemplative intervention across multiple dimensions of moral cognition and behavior. This offers an open-minded and empirically rigorous investigation into the impact of contemplative practices on moral actions. Using this framework, we gain insight into the effect of mindfulness meditation on morality, which we show does indeed have positive influences, but also some negative influences, distributed across our moral functioning.

What We Do When We Define Morality (And Why We Need to Do It)

All psychological research on morality relies on definitions of morality. Yet the various definitions often go unstated. When unstated definitions diverge, theoretical disagreements become intractable, as theories that purport to explain "morality" actually talk about very different things. This article argues for the importance of defining morality and considers four common ways of doing so: The linguistic, the functionalist, the evaluating, and the normative. Each has encountered difficulties. To surmount those difficulties, I propose a technical, psychological, empirical, and distinctive definition of morality: obligatory concerns with others' welfare, rights, fairness, and justice, as well as the reasoning, judgment, emotions, and actions that spring from those concerns. By articulating workable definitions of morality, psychologists can communicate more clearly across paradigms, separate definitional from empirical disagreements, and jointly advance the field of moral psychology.

Subjective socioeconomic status and income inequality are associated with self-reported morality across 67 countries

Individuals can experience a lack of economic resources compared to others, which we refer to as subjective experiences of economic scarcity. While such experiences have been shown to shift cognitive focus, attention, and decision-making, their association with human morality remains debated. We conduct a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between subjective experiences of economic scarcity, as indexed by low subjective socioeconomic status at the individual level, and income inequality at the national level, and various self-reported measures linked to morality. In a pre-registered study, we analyze data from a large, cross-national survey (N = 50,396 across 67 countries) allowing us to address limitations related to cross-cultural generalizability and measurement validity in prior research. Our findings demonstrate that low subjective socioeconomic status at the individual level, and income inequality at the national level, are associated with higher levels of moral identity, higher morality-as-cooperation, a larger moral circle, and increased prosocial intentions. These results appear robust to several advanced control analyses. Finally, exploratory analyses indicate that observed income inequality at the national level is not a statistically significant moderator of the associations between subjective socioeconomic status and the included measures of morality. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for understanding human morality under experiences of resource scarcity.

'Prosociality' in Daily School Life and Early Adolescents' Peer Aggression: A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis Approach

We aimed to typify prosocial characteristics of aggressive youth. We classified early adolescents based on daily configurations of prosocial behavior and autonomous prosocial motivations (performing prosocial behavior for identified and intrinsic reasons) and controlled prosocial motivations (performing prosocial behavior for external and introjected reasons) and explored the links between the obtained sub-groups and peer aggression. The sample included 242 Israeli six-graders [Mage = 11.96 (SD = 0.18), 50% girls] and their teachers. At the daily level, adolescents self-reported on prosocial behaviors and their autonomous and controlled prosocial motivations for ten consecutive days. At the trait level, adolescents reported on global, reactive, and proactive peer aggression. Teachers reported on adolescents' global peer aggression. Using multilevel latent profile analysis, we identified four day-level profiles of prosociality: 'high prosocial autonomous' (39% of days), 'low prosocial' (35%), 'average prosocial controlled' (14%), and 'high prosocial bi-motivation' (13%). At the adolescent level, we identified four sub-groups, each characterized by one dominant daily profile: 'stable high autonomy' (33% of adolescents); 'stable high bi-motivation' (12%); 'often average controlled' (16%); 'often low' (39%). Higher self-reported aggressive adolescents, particularly proactive aggressive, had the least chance of being in the 'stable high autonomy' sub-group of all sub-groups. Teacher-reported aggressive adolescents had the least likelihood of being in the 'stable high autonomy' sub-group and the most likelihood of being in the 'often low' sub-group. In sum, peer aggression is a function of the configured phenomenology of prosocial behavior and motivations, with high prosocial autonomously motivated youth being the least aggressive.

Be a Rascal Among Rascal? The Vicarious Moral Self-Regulation Effect in College Students' Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Purpose

According to social interaction theory, the psychology and behavior of individuals are influenced by others, especially these significant or intimate others. This classical social phenomenon, "Be a rascal among rascal", which explains the influence of others' behavior on an individual's behavior, has also been observed in pro-environmental behavior. In recent years, environmental psychologists have termed this interesting phenomenon as the "vicarious moral self-regulation effect", in which the prior environmental behavior of significant or intimate others influences an individual's subsequent environmental behavior. However, the stability and psychological mechanisms of the vicarious moral self-regulation effect are still not well understood. Therefore, this study aims to verify the vicarious moral self-regulation effect in pro-environmental behavior through four studies.

Methods and Results

In Study 1, 90 participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups (a stronger green credentials manipulation, a weaker green credentials manipulation, or a control group about a close friend), and results showed that participants in both stronger and less green credential groups made fewer carbon-neutral choices than those in the control group in the carbon emissions task. In Study 2 (120 participants), compared to the control group, participants in the group imagining both environmentally friendly and unfriendly behavior of close friends made fewer carbon-neutral choices. This finding also was observed in Study 3 (93 participants), where participants under the group of free recalling both environmentally friendly and unfriendly behavior of close friends made fewer green purchasing choices. In Study 4 (75 participants), compared to the control group, participants in the group of both imagining and free recalling the environmentally friendly behavior of a close friend made fewer carbon-neutral choices, and participants in the group of both imagining and free recalling the environmentally unfriendly behavior of close friend made fewer green purchasing choices.

Conclusion

Results suggest that the environmentally friendly behavior of a close friend induces the vicarious moral licensing effect (those who handle vermilion are not reddened), and the environmentally unfriendly behavior of a close friend induces the vicarious moral identity effect (those who touch ink are blackened). Environmental behaviors of intimate others induce the obvious fluctuating changes in college students' subsequent pro-environmental behaviors. This vicarious moral self-regulation effect can be explained by the mechanism of self-other overlap and provide scientific references for promoting pro-environmental behaviors among college students.

Generosity during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of collective narcissism

This study analyzes how a novel psychological factor-collective narcissism-affects giving behavior to national and international charities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that collective narcissists tended to keep more resources for themselves or national charities while giving less to international charities. In line with the group threat theory, this tendency is more pronounced in countries with a high share of foreign population. Our findings suggest that the shared experience of the global COVID-19 public health crisis did not blur the boundaries between ingroups and outgroups for collective narcissists. These results imply that mitigating outgroup hostility associated with collective narcissism is critical to strengthening cross-national solidarity during unprecedented crises. However, more contact with foreign nationals might not reduce the negative impact of collective narcissism.

Virtue Discounting: Observability Reduces Moral Actors' Perceived Virtue

Performing prosociality in public presents a paradox: only by doing so can people demonstrate their virtue and also influence others through their example, yet observers may derogate actors' behavior as mere "virtue signaling." Here we investigate the role of observability of actors' behavior as one reason that people engage in such "virtue discounting." Further, we investigate observers' motivational inferences as a mechanism of this effect, using the comparison of generosity and fairness as a case study among virtues. Across 14 studies (7 preregistered, total N = 9,360), we show that public actors are perceived as less virtuous than private actors, and that this effect is stronger for generosity compared to fairness (i.e., differential virtue discounting). Exploratory factor analysis suggests that three types of motives-principled, reputation-signaling, and norm-signaling-affect virtue discounting. Using structural equation modeling, we show that observability's effect on actors' trait virtue ratings is largely explained by inferences that actors have less principled motivations. Further, we leverage experimental evidence to provide stronger causal evidence of these effects. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings, as well as future directions for research on the social perception of virtue.

Online Moral Conformity: how powerful is a Group of Strangers when influencing an Individual's Moral Judgments during a video meeting?

People make moral decisions every day. When making such decisions, they may be influenced by their companions (a so-called moral conformity effect). Increasingly, people make decisions in online environments, like video meetings. In the current preregistered experiment, we studied the moral conformity effect in an online context. We applied an Asch conformity paradigm by asking participants (N = 120) to reply to sacrificial moral dilemmas through the online video communication tool Zoom either when sitting in a "virtual" room with strangers (confederates instructed on how to answer; experimental condition) or when sitting alone (control condition). We found that people displayed a moral conformity effect on half the dilemmas included in our study as well as in the aggregate.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04765-0.

Moral foundations of pro-choice and pro-life women

Opinions on abortion are more polarized than opinions on most other moral issues. Why are some people pro-choice and some pro-life? Religious and political preferences play a role here, but pro-choice and pro-life people may also differ in other aspects. In the current preregistered study (N = 479), we investigated how pro-choice women differ in their moral foundations from pro-life women. When the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) was applied (i.e., when declared moral principles were measured), pro-life women scored higher than pro-choice women in loyalty, authority, and purity. However, when women were asked about moral judgments indirectly via more real-life problems from the Moral Foundations Vignettes (MFV), pro-choice women scored higher than pro-life women in emotional and physical care and liberty but lower in loyalty. When we additionally controlled for religious practice and political views, we found no differences between groups in declaring moral foundations (MFQ). However, in the case of real-life moral judgments (MFV), we observed higher care, fairness, and liberty among pro-choice and higher authority and purity among pro-life. Our results show intriguing nuances between women pro-choice and pro-life as we found a different pattern of moral foundations in those groups depending on whether we measured their declared abstract moral principles or moral judgment about real-life situations. We also showed how religious practice and political views might play a role in such differences. We conclude that attitudes to abortion "go beyond" abstract moral principles, and the real-life context matters in moral judgments.

Graphical abstract

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04800-0.

Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public health behaviour, we present a dataset comprising of 51,404 individuals from 69 countries. This dataset was collected for the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 project (ICSMP COVID-19). This social science survey invited participants around the world to complete a series of moral and psychological measures and public health attitudes about COVID-19 during an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and June 2020). The survey included seven broad categories of questions: COVID-19 beliefs and compliance behaviours; identity and social attitudes; ideology; health and well-being; moral beliefs and motivation; personality traits; and demographic variables. We report both raw and cleaned data, along with all survey materials, data visualisations, and psychometric evaluations of key variables.

People are curious about immoral and morally ambiguous others

Looking to the popularity of superheroes, true crime stories, and anti-heroic characters like Tony Soprano, we investigated whether moral extremity, especially moral badness, piques curiosity. Across five experiments (N = 2429), we examine moral curiosity, testing under what conditions the moral minds of others spark explanation-seeking behavior. In Experiment 1, we find that among the most widely watched Netflix shows in the US over a five-month period, the more immoral the protagonist, the more hours people spent watching. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we find that when given a choice to learn more about morally good, bad, ambiguous, or average others, people preferred to learn more about morally extreme people, both good and bad. Experiment 3 reveals that people are more curious for explanations about (vs. descriptions of) morally bad and ambiguous people compared to morally good ones. Finally, Experiment 4 tests the uniqueness of curiosity for moral ambiguity. We find that people are more drawn to moral rather than aesthetic ambiguity, suggesting that ambiguity, which is cognitively taxing and sometimes avoided, preferentially engenders information seeking in the moral domain. These findings suggest deviations from moral normativity, especially badness, spur curiosity. People are curious about immorality and agents who differ from the norm.

Empathy for pain in Individuals influenced by moral identity: Evidence from an ERP study

Both morality and empathy are crucial in the construction of human society. The influence of morality on empathy also deserves researchers' attention. This study used event-related potential techniques to control the degree of moral identity of participants through writing tasks and deeply explored the psychological processes and neural mechanisms of moral identity affecting pain empathy. Behavioral results for picture type showed that the response time to the pain pictures was longer than the nonpain pictures, the accuracy of pain pictures was lower than that of nonpain pictures and ratings of pain pictures were rated higher than non-pain picture. Behavioral results for moral identity showed that there were no significant differences in response time, accuracy, and rating. The interaction between picture type and moral identity was not significant. The ERP results showed that people with high moral identity had higher levels of empathy than those with low moral identity, and pain pictures induced smaller N2 amplitudes and larger Late Positive Component (LPC) amplitudes than nonpain pictures. For people with low moral identity, the pain picture amplitudes were not significantly different from the N2 and LPC amplitudes induced by the nonpain pictures. These results suggest that moral identity affects and moderates the early processing of emotional empathy in the N2 representation and the late processing of cognitive empathy in the LPC representation. Individuals with high moral identity are more likely to induce early automated processing of pain to others when stimulated by pain pictures, automatically sharing the negative emotions of others, which is manifested as having more emotional empathy. Individuals with high moral identity exhibit a more refined analytical evaluation of pain pictures and a conscious, top-down control of processing when stimulated by pain pictures, which is manifested as having more cognitive empathy. Whether in the emotional empathy stage or in the cognitive empathy stage, moral identity has an important impact on pain empathy, and higher moral identity is the premise of empathy for the pain of others.

The paucity of morality in everyday talk

Given its centrality in scholarly and popular discourse, morality should be expected to figure prominently in everyday talk. We test this expectation by examining the frequency of moral content in three contexts, using three methods: (a) Participants' subjective frequency estimates (N = 581); (b) Human content analysis of unobtrusively recorded in-person interactions (N = 542 participants; n = 50,961 observations); and (c) Computational content analysis of Facebook posts (N = 3822 participants; n = 111,886 observations). In their self-reports, participants estimated that 21.5% of their interactions touched on morality (Study 1), but objectively, only 4.7% of recorded conversational samples (Study 2) and 2.2% of Facebook posts (Study 3) contained moral content. Collectively, these findings suggest that morality may be far less prominent in everyday life than scholarly and popular discourse, and laypeople, presume.

Linking Judging Moral to Acting Moral: A Relational Motivations Approach to Judging and Practicing Covid-19 Behaviors

Building on the Relational Motivation Theory, the present research argues that relational motivations (RM) underlie both the regulation and the moral judgment of socially (un)responsive Covid-19 behaviors (e.g., physical distancing) and links these two via moral identity. We hypothesize that different types of socially unresponsive behaviors are judged morally wrong through perceptions of RM violations and that a stronger concern for unity predicts the extent to which individuals self-report to perform socially responsive Covid-19 behaviors. Additionally, the role of moral identity as an individual-level moderator variable linking perceptions about RM violation to the practice of Covid-19 responsible behaviors is explored. The results support the predictions with data collected from participants living in Turkey and the USA. In both cultures, socially unresponsive Covid-19 behaviors of others were judged morally wrong through RMs, plus individuals' general concern for unity predicted their self-reported socially responsive Covid-19 behaviors. Additionally, for the sample from Turkey, results revealed that the general concern for unity was positively associated with self-reported tendencies to perform Covid-19 socially responsive behaviors only among individuals with a low or moderate moral identity, but not when moral identity was high.

A tree dries from the top: how manager’s knowledge hiding is morally disengaging employees to hide knowledge

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explicate how leaders’ knowledge hiding results in employees’ knowledge hiding. In addition, the study was intended to explore under what conditions leaders’ knowledge hiding affects employees’ moral disengagement more deleteriously.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 321 employees at three different times which were two months apart from each other. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Findings

The study found leaders’ knowledge hiding to be related to employee moral disengagement. In addition, the study found moral disengagement to affect employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior. Moral disengagement was found to mediate the relationship between leaders’ knowledge hiding and employees’ knowledge hiding. Finally, the study found that employees with high moral identity show more perseverance to preserve their moral engagement when led by knowledge-hiding leaders.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study was first to establish a relationship between a leader’s knowledge hiding and employees’ moral disengagement. The study also established the mediating role of moral disengagement to work as a mediating mechanism linking leaders’ knowledge hiding to employees’ knowledge hiding. Finally, the study found that moral identity moderates the relationship between leaders’ knowledge hiding and employees’ moral disengagement.

Understanding left-wing authoritarianism: Relations to the dark personality traits, altruism, and social justice commitment

In two pre-registered studies, we investigated the relationship of left-wing authoritarianism with the ego-focused trait of narcissism. Based on existing research, we expected individuals with higher levels of left-wing authoritarianism to also report higher levels of narcissism. Further, as individuals with leftist political attitudes can be assumed to be striving for social equality, we expected left-wing authoritarianism to also be positively related to prosocial traits, but narcissism to remain a significant predictor of left-wing authoritarianism above and beyond those prosocial dispositions. We investigated our hypotheses in two studies using cross-sectional correlational designs. Two nearly representative US samples (Study 1: N = 391; Study 2: N = 377) completed online measures of left-wing authoritarianism, the Dark Triad personality traits, and two variables with a prosocial focus (i.e., altruism and social justice commitment). In addition, we assessed relevant covariates (i.e., age, gender, socially desirable responding, and virtue signaling). The results of multiple regression analyses showed that a strong ideological view, according to which a violent revolution against existing societal structures is legitimate (i.e., anti-hierarchical aggression), was associated with antagonistic narcissism (Study 1) and psychopathy (Study 2). However, neither dispositional altruism nor social justice commitment was related to left-wing anti-hierarchical aggression. Considering these results, we assume that some leftist political activists do not actually strive for social justice and equality but rather use political activism to endorse or exercise violence against others to satisfy their own ego-focused needs. We discuss these results in relation to the dark-ego-vehicle principle.

Are Real-World Prosociality Programs Associated with Greater Psychological Well-Being in Primary School-Aged Children?

Quality education can build a sustainable, happier world, but what experiences support student well-being? Numerous laboratory studies suggest that prosocial behavior predicts greater psychological well-being. However, relatively little work has examined whether real-world prosociality programs are associated with greater well-being in primary school-aged children (aged 5-12). In Study 1, we surveyed 24/25 students who completed their 6th Grade curriculum in a long-term care home alongside residents called "Elders," which offered numerous opportunities for planned and spontaneous helping. We found that the meaning that students derived from their prosocial interactions with the Elders was strongly associated with greater psychological well-being. In Study 2, we conducted a pre-registered field experiment with 238 primary school-aged children randomly assigned to package essential items for children who experience homelessness and/or poverty who were either demographically similar or dissimilar in age and/or gender to them as part of a classroom outing. Children self-reported their happiness both pre- and post-intervention. While happiness increased from pre- to post-intervention, this change did not differ for children who helped a similar or dissimilar recipient. These studies offer real-world evidence consistent with the possibility that engaging in prosocial classroom activities-over an afternoon or year-is associated with greater psychological well-being in primary school-aged children.

Donate for your Secrets: Relationship between Secrecy, Guilt and Donation Behavior

Previous research has well documented the negative sides of secrecy, ignoring its potential constructive aspects. Based on the concept of compensatory behavior, this study conducted two experiments with 532 adults to explore the mediating role of felt guilt between secrecy and donation, and the moderating role of moral identity. Study 1 (N = 272) showed that felt guilt mediated the relationship between secrecy and donation behaviors. Study 2 (N = 260) validated the mediation effect of Study 1 and further indicated that the mediated path was stronger for participants with higher moral identity. Specifically, participants with higher moral identity felt more guilty and donated more after secrecy than those with lower moral identity. The results of this study not only expand the constructive consequences of secrecy but also add more ways to appeal for donations.

“The Exorcist”: a grounded theory on how individuals avoid unethical requests at work

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand how individuals seek to reduce the occurrence of unethical requests at work and the effects of such strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors built a grounded theory through semi-structured interviews with 65 individuals who worked for companies involved in the Brazilian corruption scandal called Operation Car Wash.

Findings

The interviewees reported that they use two central strategies to avoid unethical requests: explicit moral communication (directly stating that they are not willing to adhere to an unethical request) and implicit communication (expressing such a refusal through moral symbols). Both strategies signal the morality of the communicator and lead the possible proponent of an unethical request to perceive a greater probability of being reported and, thus, avoid making such an unethical request. However, while explicit moral communication affects the perceived morality of the individual who would possibly make an unethical request, implicit (symbolic) moral communication does not. As a consequence, the risks of retaliation for making a moral communication are greater in the case of explicit moral communication, entailing that implicit moral communication is more effective and safer for the individual who wants to avoid unethical requests.

Originality/value

This paper broadens the literature on business ethics and moral psychology by shifting its focus from what organizations and leaders can do to prevent unethical behavior to what leaders can actively do to protect themselves from unethical requests.

Associations between Parenting, Temperament-Related Self-Regulation and the Moral Self in Middle Childhood

The moral self is increasingly being debated in research, i.e., what causes children to internalise and evaluate the importance of certain moral values. The aim of the present study is to analyse associations between parental warmth and harsh parenting, temperamental self-regulation (inhibitory control and impulsivity), and the moral self in middle childhood. A total of 194 (n = 52 children with special educational needs in emotional-social development) six- to eleven-year-old children (M_age = 8.53, SD_age = 1.40) and their primary caregivers (M_age = 40.41, SD_age = 5.94) participated in this cross-sectional questionnaire study. Parental warmth and impulsivity were associated with the moral self. Impulsivity mediated the relationship between harsh parenting as well as parental warmth and the moral self. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance to social information processing theory. The importance of parenting and temperamental self-regulation is discussed as implications that may in turn strengthen children's moral selves.

IAT faking indices revisited: Aspects of replicability and differential validity

Research demonstrates that IATs are fakeable. Several indices [either slowing down or speeding up, and increasing errors or reducing errors in congruent and incongruent blocks; Combined Task Slowing (CTS); Ratio 150-10000] have been developed to detect faking. Findings on these are inconclusive, but previous studies have used small samples, suggesting they were statistically underpowered. Further, the stability of the results, the unique predictivity of the indices, the advantage of combining indices, and the dependency on how faking success is computed have yet to be examined. Therefore, we reanalyzed a large data set (N = 750) of fakers and non-fakers who completed an extraversion IAT. Results showed that faking strategies depend on the direction of faking. It was possible to detect faking of low scores due to slowing down on the congruent block, and somewhat less with CTS-both strategies led to faking success. In contrast, the strategy of increasing errors on the congruent block was observed but was not successful in altering the IAT effect in the desired direction. Fakers of high scores could be detected due to slowing down on the incongruent block, increasing errors on the incongruent block, and with CTS-all three strategies led to faking success. The results proved stable in subsamples and generally across different computations of faking success. Using regression analyses and machine learning, increasing errors had the strongest impact on the classification. Apparently, fakers use various goal-dependent strategies and not all are successful. To detect faking, we recommend combining indices depending on the context (and examining convergence).

Internet impropriety: Moral identity, moral disengagement, and antisocial online behavior within an early adolescent to young adult sample

INTRODUCTION

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are the most popular medium for social communication amongst adolescents and young adults. However, there is growing concern surrounding heightened ICT use and the activation of influential social constructs such as moral identity and moral disengagement. The importance of moral ideals to oneself (i.e., moral identity) and the distancing of oneself from these moral ideals (i.e., moral disengagement) are often contextual and were tested for differences in online domains compared to face-to-face interactions.

METHODS

Three hundred and ninety-two early adolescent to young adult participants (M_age  = 19.54 years, SD = 4.48) completed self-report questionnaires that assessed online and face-to-face behavior in this cross-sectional study.

RESULTS

Moral identity in an online context was significantly lower when compared to family and friend contexts. Further, moral disengagement was significantly higher in an online context when compared to face-to-face contexts and online moral disengagement significantly mediated the relationship between online moral identity and antisocial online behaviors (i.e., pirating, trolling, and hacking, etc.,). Both of these contextual differences remained stable across early adolescence to young adulthood.

CONCLUSION

Moral identity and moral disengagement exhibit sociocognitive effects within online contexts across ages of early developmental importance. These results may account for high prevalence rates of antisocial online behavior such as trolling, pirating, and hacking within this sample. As social interaction for younger demographics continues to gravitate online, these results highlight that online contexts can influence important personality constructs.

The Dispositional Essence of Proactive Social Preferences: The Dark Core of Personality vis-à-vis 58 Traits

Individuals differ in how they weigh their own utility versus others'. This tendency codefines the dark factor of personality (D), which is conceptualized as the underlying disposition from which all socially and ethically aversive (dark) traits arise as specific, flavored manifestations. We scrutinize this unique theoretical notion by testing, for a broad set of 58 different traits and related constructs, whether any predict how individuals weigh their own versus others' utility in proactive allocation decisions (i.e., social value orientations) beyond D. These traits and constructs range from broad dimensions (e.g., agreeableness), to aversive traits (e.g., sadism) and beliefs (e.g., normlessness), to prosocial tendencies (e.g., compassion). In a large-scale longitudinal study involving the assessment of consequential choices (median N = 2,270; a heterogeneous adult community sample from Germany), results from several hundred latent model comparisons revealed that no meaningful incremental variance was explained beyond D. Thus, D alone is sufficient to represent the social preferences inherent in socially and ethically aversive personality traits.