Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/306849 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
WZB Discussion Paper No. SP II 2024-301
Publisher: 
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Berlin
Abstract: 
An extensive literature documents that people are willing to sacrifice personal material gain to adhere to a moral motive. However, less is known about the psychological mechanisms that operate when two moral motives come into conflict. We hypothesize that individuals adhere to the moral motive that aligns with their self-interest. We test this hypothesis using experiments that induce a conflict between two of the most-studied moral motives: fairness and truth-telling. Consistent with our hypothesis and across experiments, our results show that individuals do prefer to adhere to the moral motive that is more aligned with their self-interest.
Subjects: 
Moral dilemmas
Dictator game
Lying game
Motives
Motivated reasoning
JEL: 
C91
D01
D63
D90
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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