Moral identity and ethical decision making

Abstract

Four studies were undertaken to assess the role of moral identity in ethical decision making. The first two studies attempted to use two primes of moral identity to determine whether, when a person's moral identity is threatened, they undertake moral cleansing or compensatory behaviour, whereas where a person's moral identity is salient they have a strong self-worth and will consequently use moral licensing to act less ethically. Both studies were unsuccessful in supporting this hypothesis. Discussion of the results suggested that the approach within the research methodology was too complex. Based on this result, a third study attempted a simplified approach to assessing influences on ethical decision making. Specifically, Study 3 assessed the role of in-group and out-group judgements comparative to judgments of the self. The results suggested that in some circumstances, a person may change their own behaviour depending on what a colleague or non-colleague might do. The final study used this result to assess the impact of an observer on participants' ethical decision making. The results confirmed that the value of donations to charity could be influenced by both the presence of another person and that person's status relative to the participant. The implications for the ethical decision making field, along with future research in this area, are discussed.