Saying one thing and doing what exactly? Examining flexibility in judgments of hypocrisy
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Mowrey, Sarah
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- October 13, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Sean Laurent, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Christopher Daryl Cameron, Committee Member
Kristin Buss (She/Her), Program Head/Chair
Suzy Scherf, Committee Member - Keywords:
- hypocrisy
social cognition
morality - Abstract:
- The current work investigates the multi-faceted nature of hypocrisy. Three experiments investigated two forms of hypocrisy—diffuse and indirect hypocrisy. Diffuse hypocrisy is when the expression of a more general, superordinate attitude leads to attributions of hypocrisy in response to multiple behaviors. Indirect hypocrisy is proposed as a novel form of hypocrisy, in which a behavior does not directly contradict an attitude, but instead contradicts a superordinate value suggested by an attitude. A first experiment explored whether direct, diffuse, and indirect associations among attitudes and behaviors exist, supporting the idea that these associations drive hypocrisy attribution. A second experiment, using similar methods, examined the perceived likelihood that different social targets who expressed different attitudes would engage in different behaviors. This study provided initial support for the hypothesized model by showing that people expect others to behave consistently with their stated or inferred values. The last study, again using similar methods, documented hypocrisy attributions for attitude-behavior pairs with different types of associations. Results indicate that observers assume that broad value statements are associated with numerous related specific attitudes. Moreover, people attribute similarly high hypocrisy when a concrete behavior contradicts the broad value as when it contradicts a specific attitude. Importantly, this work also shows that moderate hypocrisy is attributed when a specific attitude is paired with a seemingly unrelated behavior when the attitude and behavior both belong to the same superordinate category. The implications of these findings for broader understanding of social and moral perception are discussed.