Research Overview
The central theme in my research is moral inconsistency. Why don't people always live up to their values? Why do we have different moral standards for different people? And how do we react when we notice moral inconsistency in others?
Within this theme, much of my work focuses on four topics.
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The Moral Psychology of Misinformation
Why do people tolerate "fake news" and dishonest leaders?
Commentators worry we live in a “post-truth” era, surrounded by dishonest leaders, fake news, and other sources of misinformation. Misinformation spreads not only when people believe it, but also when they excuse it. My research sheds light on why people tolerate misinformation and what we can do to reduce its spread. Current and recent projects ...
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... examine when and why political partisans disagree about the morality of lying [article]
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... reveal how people use their imaginations to excuse the lies they like [article1, article2, NYTimes Op-Ed]
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... suggest how to curb the spread of "fake news" by encouraging people to think more carefully about morality [article; blog post]
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... explain why it can be useful for leaders to tell bald-faced lies that fool no one
For an accessible overview of this research, read this article.
Moral Desensitization
Bad deeds seem less unethical when we've heard about them repeatedly
When news about the latest scandal goes viral, you might read the same information about the same wrongdoing multiple times on social media, or hear about it repeatedly throughout the 24-hour news cycles. My research suggests that the more you hear about this wrongdoing, the less wrong it may seem. I call this the moral repetition effect. For example, the more times you're reminded that a particular organization committed fraud, the less unethical you may find that example of fraud.
Relevant projects ...
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... show that fake-news headlines seem less unethical to share when you've seen them before [article]
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... examine why we become morally desensitized to wrongdoing [article]
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... demonstrate the moral repetition effect in a naturalistic setting over a two-week period [article]
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... reveal when people do not become desensitized to viral wrongdoings [article]
Hypocrisy
When and why do we condemn people who fail to practice what they preach?
Leaders are often advised to "walk their talk," and with good reason. Failing to practice what you preach can have devastating consequences for your reputation and for your follower's reputations. Yet it's not always possible to maintain perfect consistency between what we say and what we do. This line of work examines when and why people tolerate such inconsistency, and when and why they instead condemn it as hypocrisy.
This article reviews many of my findings.
Moral Licensing
How do people convince themselves that they have a license to sin?
My early work examined how doing good can, ironically, license people to do bad. I examined this phenomenon in the domains of politics, racism, and dieting, and showed how people distort reality to convince themselves that they've established a track record as a virtuous person.