In our "post-truth" era, misinformation spreads not only because people believe falsehoods, but also because people sometimes give dishonesty a moral pass. The present research examines how the moral judgments that people form about dishonesty depend not only on what they know to be true, but also on what they imagine might become true. In six studies (N = 3,607), people judged a falsehood as less unethical to tell in the present when we randomly assigned them to entertain prefactual thoughts about how it might become true in the future. This effect emerged with participants from 59 nations judging falsehoods about consumer products, professional skills, and controversial political issues-and the effect was particularly pronounced when participants were inclined to accept that the falsehood might become true. Moreover, thinking prefactually about how a falsehood might become true made people more inclined to share the falsehood on social media. We theorized that, even when people recognize a falsehood as factually incorrect, these prefactual thoughts reduce how unethical the falsehood seems by making the broader meaning that the statement communicates, its gist, seem truer. Mediational evidence was consistent with this theorizing. We argue that prefactual thinking offers people a degree of freedom they can use to excuse lies, and we discuss implications for theories of mental simulation and moral judgment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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它可能会成为现实：预先思考如何允许不诚实。

在我们的“后真相”时代，错误信息的传播不仅是因为人们相信谎言，还因为人们有时会在道德上放过不诚实。本研究探讨了人们对不诚实形成的道德判断如何不仅取决于他们所知道的真实情况，还取决于他们想象的可能成为真实的事情。在六项研究 (N = 3,607) 中，当我们随机分配他们接受关于未来如何可能成为真的预先事实的想法时，人们认为现在说谎不那么不道德。这种效应出现在来自 59 个国家的参与者判断有关消费品、专业技能和有争议的政治问题的谎言时——当参与者倾向于接受虚假可能成为真的时，这种效应尤其明显。而且，预先考虑虚假如何成为真实的想法使人们更倾向于在社交媒体上分享虚假信息。我们的理论是，即使人们认为谎言实际上是不正确的，这些预先事实的想法通过使陈述所传达的更广泛的含义、其要点看起来更真实，从而减少了虚假看起来的不道德程度。中介证据与这一理论一致。我们认为，预先思考为人们提供了可以用来为谎言辩解的一定程度的自由，并且我们讨论了对心理模拟和道德判断理论的影响。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。这些预先的想法通过使陈述所传达的更广泛的含义，其要点看起来更真实，从而减少了虚假看起来的不道德程度。中介证据与这一理论一致。我们认为，预先思考为人们提供了可以用来为谎言辩解的一定程度的自由，并且我们讨论了对心理模拟和道德判断理论的影响。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。这些预先的想法通过使陈述所传达的更广泛的含义，其要点看起来更真实，从而减少了虚假看起来的不道德程度。中介证据与这一理论一致。我们认为，预先思考为人们提供了可以用来为谎言辩解的一定程度的自由，并且我们讨论了对心理模拟和道德判断理论的影响。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。