The Paradox in Moral Character Judgement of Highly Altruistic Individuals: Investigating the Role of Predictability and Honesty-humility

IF 2.8 2区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

European Journal of Social Psychology Pub Date : 2025-03-11 DOI:10.1002/ejsp.3160

Sijie Sun, Huanhuan Zhao, Qiao Pi, Heyun Zhang

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Abstract

This study explored why highly altruistic individuals are regarded as less moral from a third-party perspective and investigated the boundary conditions of this phenomenon. In Study 1 (N = 199), participants evaluated those who distributed all (vs. half) of their resources to others as being less predictable and having a lower moral character. Study 2 (N = 238) examined the boundary condition of the mediation effect and found that honesty-humility moderated the relationship between altruism type and predictability. Low honesty-humility exacerbated the perception that highly altruistic individuals were less predictable, while high honesty-humility buffered this lower predictability, which further influenced people's judgements of the moral character of highly altruistic individuals. Study 3 (N = 213) optimized the experimental design to further test the role of predictability and honesty-humility to validate the robustness of the hypothesized model. Implications of the negative relationship between high altruism and moral character judgement are discussed.

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高度利他个体道德品质判断的悖论：可预见性和诚实-谦卑的作用研究

本研究从第三方的角度探讨了为什么高度利他的个体被认为是不那么道德的，并研究了这一现象的边界条件。在研究1 （N = 199）中，参与者评价那些将全部（相对于一半）资源分配给他人的人是不可预测的，道德品质较低。研究2 （N = 238）检验了中介效应的边界条件，发现诚实-谦卑调节了利他类型与可预测性之间的关系。低诚实-谦卑加剧了高度利他主义个体难以预测的认知，而高诚实-谦卑缓冲了这种较低的可预测性，这进一步影响了人们对高度利他主义个体道德品质的判断。研究3 （N = 213）优化实验设计，进一步检验可预见性和诚实谦卑的作用，验证假设模型的稳健性。讨论了高度利他主义与道德品质判断之间负向关系的含义。

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来源期刊

European Journal of Social Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

6.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Topics covered include, among others, intergroup relations, group processes, social cognition, attitudes, social influence and persuasion, self and identity, verbal and nonverbal communication, language and thought, affect and emotion, embodied and situated cognition and individual differences of social-psychological relevance. Together with original research articles, the European Journal of Social Psychology"s innovative and inclusive style is reflected in the variety of articles published: Research Article: Original articles that provide a significant contribution to the understanding of social phenomena, up to a maximum of 12,000 words in length.