Does Honesty Result from Moral Will or Moral Grace? Why Moral Identity Matters

Zhi Xu () and Hing Ma ()

Journal of Business Ethics, 2015, vol. 127, issue 2, 384 pages

Abstract: Does honesty result from the absence of temptation or the active resistance of temptation? The “will’’ hypothesis suggests that honesty results from the active resistance of temptation, while the ”grace” hypothesis argues that honesty results from the absence of temptation. We examined reaction time and measured the cheating behavior of individuals who had a chance to lie for money. In study 1, we tested the “grace” hypothesis that honesty results from the absence of temptation and found a priming effect of moral constructs on increasing honest behavior. In study 2, we investigated the individual’s moral identity in the same context, articulating different mechanisms that lead people to behave ethically. The result confirms that the “grace” hypothesis was valid for people who had a high moral identity, while the “will” hypothesis was accurate for individuals who had a low moral identity. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Keywords: Cheating behavior; Moral identity; Moral grace; Moral will; Neural activity; Reaction time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2050-x

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