ABSTRACT

Witnessing acts of uncommon moral virtue can elicit feelings of moral elevation, which translate further into prosocial intentions and behaviour. Recent findings suggest that moral identity strengthens the elevation response after witnessing such acts. In the present paper, we propose that the positive relationship between moral identity and elevation is mediated by perceived moral self-efficacy (i.e. perceived ability to behave up to one’s moral standards), as a result of the moral vicarious experience. We present a set of five studies that tested the effect of moral identity (either measured or manipulated) and moral self-efficacy on elevation, prosocial intentions, and behaviour, following exposure to an act of uncommon virtue. Results supported a sequential mediation model: the positive effect of moral identity on elevation was mediated by moral self-efficacy; and elevation then mediated the effect of moral identity on prosocial intentions (Studies 3a-3b-4) and behaviour (Study 4). Implications and limitations are outlined.

摘要

目睹不寻常的道德美德行为可以引起道德提升的感觉，这进一步转化为亲社会的意图和行为。最近的研究结果表明，道德认同加强了目睹此类行为后的提升反应。在本文中，我们提出道德认同与提升之间的正向关系是通过感知道德自我效能（即感知到的行为达到一个人的道德标准的能力）来调节的，这是道德替代体验的结果。我们提出了一组五项研究，这些研究测试了道德认同（测量或操纵）和道德自我效能对提升、亲社会意图和行为的影响，在暴露于不寻常的美德行为之后。结果支持顺序中介模型：道德认同对提升的积极影响是由道德自我效能感调节的；然后，提升介导了道德认同对亲社会意图（研究 3a-3b-4）和行为（研究 4）的影响。概述了影响和限制。