Multiple sociological studies have demonstrated how talk of ‘good’ motives enables people to maintain the presentation of a moral self in the context of stigmatised behaviours. Far fewer have examined why people sometimes describe acting for the ‘wrong reasons’ or choose to qualify, or reject, assumptions that they are motivated by a desire to ‘do good’. In this article, I analyse one such situation: sperm donors who describe being partially motivated by a ‘selfish’ desire to procreate, a motive which these same men frame as morally questionable. I argue that such accounts are explicable if we consider the (gendered) interactional and cultural contexts in which they are produced, particularly the way interactive contexts shape the desirability and achievability of plausibility and authenticity. I suggest that analysis of similar social phenomena can support sociologists in better understanding the complex ways in which moral practices are woven into social interactions.

多项社会学研究已经证明，谈论“良好”动机是如何使人们在被污名化的行为背景下保持道德自我的表现。很少有人研究过为什么人们有时会描述为“错误的原因”或选择限定或拒绝他们出于“做好事”的愿望的假设。在这篇文章中，我分析了一种这样的情况：精子捐赠者描述的部分动机是“自私”的生育欲望，这些人认为这种动机在道德上是有问题的。我认为，如果我们考虑产生它们的（性别化的）互动和文化背景，特别是互动背景塑造似真性和真实性的可取性和可实现性的方式，那么这些说明是可以解释的。