I’m just being honest.” When and why honesty enables help versus harm

Bibliographic Data

ID10166530
AuthorsEmma Levine (0000-0001-7631-4231, University of Chicago, corresponding author), David Munguia Gomez (Booth University College)
Year2020
Volume120
Issue1
Pages33-56
Publication date2020-05-28
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/pspi0000242
PMID32463271
OpenAlexW3028638094
LanguageEN
Citations received6

Although honesty is typically conceptualized as a virtue, it often conflicts with other equally important moral values, such as avoiding interpersonal harm. In the present research, we explore when and why honesty enables helpful versus harmful behavior. Across 5 incentive-compatible experiments in the context of advice-giving and economic games, we document four central results. First, honesty enables selfish harm: people are more likely to engage in and justify selfish behavior when selfishness is associated with honesty than when it is not. Second, people are selectively honest: people are more likely to be honest when honesty is associated with selfishness than when honesty is associated with altruism. Third, these effects are more consistent with genuine, rather than motivated, preferences for honesty. Fourth, even when individuals have no selfish incentive to be honest, honesty can lead to interpersonal harm because people avoid information about how their honest behavior affects others. This research unearths new insights on the mechanisms underlying moral choice, and consequently, the contexts in which moral principles are a force of good versus a force of evil. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Harm · Honesty · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

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