Acting on one’s moral principles is not always easy. Upholding one’s moral beliefs may run counter to one’s social environment or situational demands. It may often cause people to remain silent on their convictions, while at the same time some may show the moral courage to speak out. How do people evaluate those who do stand up, and how does it affect their self-evaluations? In two experimental studies (Ns = 207 and 204), we investigated both types of evaluations. The studies demonstrate that people who failed to uphold their moral beliefs still had positive evaluations of others who showed moral courage. More specifically, pro-gay participants who went along with writing an anti-gay essay denouncing equal rights for sexual minorities had positive evaluations of another person who spoke up and refused this task. The failure to display moral courage had negative consequences for participants’ self-concepts. In Experiment 1, we show that pro-gay participants’ positive self-concepts were lowered after writing an anti-gay essay (vs. a pro-gay essay). In Experiment 2, we reveal that participants' positive self-concepts were lowered only when they were confronted with morally courageous behavior and their own failure to uphold their moral beliefs was visible to the experimenter.

按照一个人的道德原则行事并不总是那么容易。坚持一个人的道德信念可能与一个人的社会环境或情境要求背道而驰。它往往会导致人们对自己的信念保持沉默，同时有些人可能会表现出直言不讳的道德勇气。人们如何评价那些站出来的人，这又如何影响他们的自我评价？在两项实验研究（Ns = 207 和 204）中，我们调查了两种类型的评估。研究表明，未能坚持自己的道德信念的人仍然对表现出道德勇气的其他人给予积极评价。更具体地说，支持同性恋的参与者写了一篇谴责性少数群体平等权利的反同性恋文章，他们对另一个发言并拒绝这项任务的人给予了积极的评价。未能表现出道德勇气会对参与者的自我概念产生负面影响。在实验 1 中，我们表明亲同性恋参与者的积极自我概念在写了一篇反同性恋文章后（与亲同性恋文章相比）降低了。在实验 2 中，我们揭示了参与者的积极自我概念只有在他们面对道德上勇敢的行为时才会降低，并且实验者可以看到他们自己未能坚持自己的道德信念。