Dynamic Morality:the Effect Of Holidays On Moral Behavior And Moral Judgment

People's moral behavior and moral judgment are easily affected by situation.The normal,unremarkable change of time(i.e.,the temporal distance and time of day)can influence individuals' morality.For example,people seem like to make different moral judgment about a case when it happens in disparate time.What's more,an investigation proposes that people are more moral in the morning than in the afternoon.Individuals experience different power and positivity in holidays and working days,which implies their dynamic morality in these two periods from the perspective of moral metaphor.Otherwise,we are informed by the news media that unethical behaviors are probably increased in holidays,We need to verify its authenticity by scientific evidences.Thus,this study is trying to explore the following question,which is about time affects morality,in empirical ways:Do people engage in more unethical behavior and express different moral judgment in holidays?Various researches predict that moral self and the need to avoid harm play important roles in situation affecting moral judgment as mediators.We also try to find the psychological mechanism of holidays influencing moral judgment and moral behavior by testing the mediator factor.Three studies are handled to explore the questions above.In experiment 1,participants in holidays or working days make choices about moral behavior in a dilemma scenario,so that we can observe the difference of moral behavior between these two periods.Experiment 2 tests whether the effect of holidays extends beyond the self,influencing judgments of other people's unethical behavior.Besides,moral self and the need to avoid harm of participants are also measured through their self-statements,which can explore the psychological mechanism of time affecting moral judgment and behavior in the first step.In experiment 3,participants are guided to make judgment about some controversial social unethical problems.Also,a more detailed scale is used to verify that whether people's need to avoid harm mediate the impact of holidays on moral judgment.Based on these three experiments,the research findings demonstrate that:First,holidays affect individuals' ethical behavior.People in working days engage in more ethical behavior and nonutilitarian choices than the ones who are in holidays.Second,holidays affect individuals' moral judgment.People in working days believe others as more likely to behave unethically,lie,and judge the social unethical behavior to be more unethical than the ones who are in holidays.Third,holidays affect individuals' need to avoid harm.People in working days hold more need to avoid harm than the ones who are in holidays.