Effects Of In-group Or Out-group Stranger’s Presence And Behavior On Moral Hypocrisy

Objective:To examine the effect of in-group or out-group stranger’s presence on moral hypocrisy, and to explore the effect of in-group or out-group stranger’s presence and his/her moral or hypocritical behavior on an individual’s moral hypocrisy.Methods:In the present study, the subjects were college students. In the laboratory, after reading the scenarios questionnaire, the participants reported the donation orally. And then, in the following donation situation, their donation behaviors were measured. In this study, the difference of proportion between the orally reported and actually contributed was the dependent variable, which seems to be the index of measuring individual’s moral hypocrisy. Experiment 1 using single factor(in-group stranger/ out-group stranger) between groups random experimental design; Experiment 2 using 2(in-group stranger/ out-group stranger) × 2(moral behavior/ hypocritical behavior) between groups random experimental design.Results:1, In the condition of the presence of in-group stranger, there was no significant difference between the proportion of participants orally reported and actually contributed. While in the condition of the presence of out-group stranger, the proportion of orally reported was significantly higher than actually contributed. 2, Compared with the situation that the out-group stranger was present, the difference of proportion between the orally reported and actually contributed was significantly different with the situation about in-group stranger. 3, On the difference of proportion between the orally reported and actually contributed, there was a significant main effect between in-group stranger and out-group stranger as well as moral behavior and hypocritical behavior. There was a significant interaction effect between group identity of the stranger(in-group/ out-group) and stranger’s behavior(moral behavior/ hypocritical behavior).Conclusion:1, The presence of in-group stranger could effectively inhibit moral hypocrisy, while the presence of out-group stranger had no effect on moral hypocrisy. 2, The stranger’s moral behavior could effectively restrain moral hypocrisy. 3, When present stranger show the moral behavior, the in-group stranger could more effectively suppress individual’s moral hypocrisy than out-group stranger. However, when present stranger show the hypocritical behavior, no matter the stranger is in-group or out-group member, it had no effect on individual’s moral hypocrisy.