Hypocrites or maligned cooperative participants? Experimenter induced normative conflict in zero-sum situations

The failure to recognize the influence of two distinct forms of moral norms can lead to the misattribution of moral behavior to egoistic motives. This is illustrated in the research of Batson and his colleagues (e.g., Batson, Kobrynowicz, Dinnerstein, Kampf, & Wilson, 1997). They reported the appearance of moral failure and hypocrisy motivation in several experiments employing essentially the same zero-sum experimental situation. They cited as evidence the discrepancy between participants\u27 apparently self-serving private acts and their subsequent public ratings of the morality of what they had clone as well as their recognition of the most moral way to behave. The research reported here supported an alternative explanation that located the experimenter\u27s implicit and explicit instructions as the source of the discrepancy between the participants\u27 private acts and their public ratings. The findings confirmed the hypothesis that Batson and his colleagues had not merely made moral norms salient . They had actually presented their participants with contradictory demands : explicitly inviting them to meet the norm of justified self-interest in private but then give public lip-service to the experimenter\u27s instructions as to a supererogatory way to behave. When either of the demands was removed, the hypocrisy no longer occurred. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved