New research sheds light on the type of sacrifices people are willing to make to protect their moral reputations.
Our common scholarly interest in the idea that the human self-evolved for and serves social purposes was what brought us to choose this particular topic,” said Andrew J. Vonasch, the study’s corresponding author. “My research, in particular, examines the relationship between morality and rationality. A lot of economic models of human behavior assume that people are only rational when they narrowly pursue their own self-interest, but history shows us that people are also tremendously concerned with being and appearing moral. We wanted to scientifically test how far people would go to protect their reputations, as this would speak to the social nature of the self.”
Research: Death Before Dishonor – Incurring Costs to Protect Moral Reputation
