Promoting Individuals' Intentions to be a Moral Rebel by Confronting Their Compliance With Morally Compromising Situations.

Abstract

The tendency to be a moral rebel reflects individuals' propensity to resist, oppose, and confront morally problematic situations when otherwise failing to do so would compromise their values. Because the tendency to be a moral rebel is relatively rare, the current research examines if confrontation can promote individuals' intentions to be a moral rebel. Results revealed that confrontation of individuals' compliance with morally problematic situations-whether through providing them feedback via informational or normative social influence-promoted their intentions to be a moral rebel (studies 1, 2, and 3), particularly when morality was important to their identities (study 2 and 3). The effects of confrontation were not limited to direct interpersonal confrontation (studies 1 and 2) and emerged when individuals' behavior was challenged online by an artificial electronically-generated human voice (study 3). Findings suggest that confrontation can promote individuals' tendency to principally resist, oppose, and confront morally problematic situations.