ARE THE MORALLY EXCEPTIONAL CONSISTENTLY MORAL?

This study intends to test if action consistency is an appropriate way to identify moral exemplars and if these moral exemplars display the same consistency when responding to various morality measures (as measured by their self-reported levels of morality matching their perceived levels of morality from behaving in a moral manner). It also aims to discover how the morally exceptional differ from the morally indifferent on several morally-relevant personality characteristics. 100 participants took part in part 1 of the study, which consisted of two honesty tasks. 99 participants took part in part 2 of the study (a moral hypocrisy task). 20 participants took part in part 3 of the study (a dictator game task and moral questionnaires battery). Participants were classified as morally exceptional or morally indifferent based on their performance in the four tasks. Findings indicate that the morally exceptional do, indeed, significantly differ on certain morality traits and that these self-reported differences in personality are consistent with their behavior. More specifically, the morally exceptional are significantly more guilt-prone, honest, humble, loyal, committed to human rights, and committed to their community than the morally indifferent. In conclusion, this study endorses the idea that there are morally exceptional people in our communities who can be identified by looking at the consistency of their behaviors and who differ on certain morality traits. Moreover, moral behavior tends to follow the same general pattern as self-reported levels of morality. So, those who report the lowest levels of morality act the least moral and those who report the highest levels of morality (i.e. the moral exceptional) act the most moral.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Hamza, Ayat Gamal Ali

• Moral Exemplars

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/82239

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/82239