28/03/19
Speaker: Marina Scattolin, data presentation
Bodily self-consciousness (BSC) mainly consists of the sense of owning one’s own body, i.e., the Sense of Ownership (OW), and of being in control of one’s own actions, i.e., the Sense of Agency (AG). The way in which BSC signals can influence morality and the tendency to deceive is still unclear, with studies suggesting that attention towards body signals can make us more sensitive to our needs and thus dishonest, and others suggesting that BSC signals would make us feel more in control of our actions and then more honest.
Here, we tested (in 658 participants) whether self-report measures of BSC differently relate to Moral Identity (measured by a questionnaire) and Moral Behaviour (measured as participants’ tendency to cheat in a task where they could gain more money by lying). Our data show an interesting dissociation between Moral Identity and Behaviour: when high OW is associated to low sensitivity to Monetary Reward, people feel more moral but behave less honestly. This suggests that being aware of the fact that we are not tempted by rewards enhances our moral self-image but impairs Moral Behaviour. This is in line with moral credit models which posit that we use moral behaviour to balance our moral self: when moral identity is high, we allow ourselves to misbehave (moral self-licencing) and when low, we enhance honest behaviours (moral cleansing).
Discussants: Giorgia Ponsi and Matteo Lisi
Speaker: Alessandro Monti
Speaker’s Corner: Matteo Lisi & Manuel Mello: Report on 'Virtual and Robotic Embodiment' conference in Barcellona