The Impact Of Construal Level On Moral Hypocrisy

Moral judgment is the process of evaluating right or wrong，good or evil of theaction according to moral principles and knowledge. A study found, people will usedoublestandards in moral judgment,where we are stricter in judging others and morelenient in judging ourselves.Facing the same immoral act, others are more immoral thanourselves；Facing the same moral act，we are more moral than others. Moral hypocrisy isthe discrepancy of moral judgment between different objects.Moral hypocrisy is a ubiquitous motive. As an important part of socialcognition,research has also confirmed cultural differences of moral hypocrisy.But doeshow moral hypocrisy procedure？which factors can influence moral hypocrisy? Doesconstrual level impact moral hypocrisy?Will low construal level eliminate moralhypocrisy? Through the research，we hope to further deepen understanding of theproblem that moral behavior breaks away from moral cognition andprovide inspirationand suggestions for moral education in our country.This research uses situational story method to collect data the subjects are thestudents of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. A total of two studies areincluded. In study1，Launching technology is used in the manipulation of construallevel，we test that will construal level (high/low) and object (oneself/others) affect thesubjects’ moral evaluation, whether the high construal level can enhance moral hypocrisy,or low construal level can eliminate moral hypocrisy. In study2， we operatepsychological distance—the definition of construal level to examine the influence oftemporal distance，spatial distance and probability on moral hypocrisy.The resultsshowed：(1)Construal level has no significant main effect.The scores of “stolen car”behavior between high and low construal level are no significant difference.(2)The main effect of objec is significant.In the story of “stolen car”,When theprotagonist is others, subjects give a low score and moral judgment is harsh; When theprotagonist is the oneself, subjects give a high score and moral judgment is more lenient, showing the moral hypocrisy.(3) Construal level and object have significant interactive effects.At high level, therewas significant difference between the scores of oneself and others,no significantdifference in low level. High construal level can increase the moral hypocrisy, and lowconstrual level can eliminate the moral hypocrisy.(4) The main effect of temporal distance is significant. temporal distance is far,thescore is high; temporal distance is near, the score is low.In the condition of temporaldistance, judging object has significant main effect, the score of oneself is higher thanothers’and it showed moral hypocrisy;The interaction effect of temporal distance and theobject is extremely significant and simple effects analysis results show that: distanttemporal distance will increase the moral hypocrisy and proximal temporal distance willeliminate the moral hypocrisy.(5) The main effect of spatial distance is no significant. The distance and proximalspatial distance have no effect on moral judgging; In the condition of spatial distance,judging object has no significant main effect,there are no differences of moral evaluationbetween oneself and others; The interaction effect of spatial distance and the object isextremely significant and simple effects analysis results show that: distant spatialdistance will increase the moral hypocrisy and proximal spatial distance will eliminatethe moral hypocrisy.(6) The main effect of probability is no significant. The high and the low probabilityhave no effect on moral judgging; In the condition of probability, judging object hassignificant main effect, the score of oneself is higher than others’ and it showed moralhypocrisy; The interaction effect of probability and the object is extremely significantand simple effects analysis results show that: low probability will increase the moralhypocrisy and high probability will eliminate the moral hypocrisy.