Forming Evaluations of Moral Character: How Are Multiple Pieces of Information Prioritized and Integrated?

Evaluating other people's moral character is a crucial social cognitive task. However, the cognitive processes by which people seek out, prioritize, and integrate multiple pieces of character-relevant information have not been studied empirically. The first aim of this research was to examine which character traits are considered most important when forming an impression of a person's overall moral character. The second aim was to understand how differing levels of trait expression affect overall character judgments. Four preregistered studies and one supplemental study (total N = 720), using five different measures of importance and sampling undergraduates, online workers, and community members, found that our participants placed the most importance on the traits honest, helpful, compassionate, loyal, and responsible. Also, when integrating the information that they have learned, our participants seemed to engage in a simple averaging process in which all available, relevant information is combined in a linear fashion to form an overall evaluation of moral character. This research provides new insights into the cognitive processes by which evaluations of moral character are formed.

Hearing Prosocial Stories Increases Hadza Hunter-Gatherers' Generosity in an Economic Game

Folk stories featuring prosocial content are ubiquitous across cultures. One explanation for the ubiquity of such stories is that stories teach people about the local socioecology, including norms of prosociality, and stories featuring prosocial content may increase generosity in listeners. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 185 Hadza hunter-gatherers. We read participants a story in which the main character either swims with another person (control story) or rescues him from drowning (prosocial story). After hearing the story, participants played a dictator game with dried meat sticks and then were given a recall test of facts presented in the story. There was moderate evidence for a small effect of the prosocial story: participants who heard the prosocial story gave an estimated 0.22 [90% HDI: -0.12-0.57] more meat sticks than those who heard the control story. However, the association between generosity and sex, marital status, and region of residence was stronger; men gave more than women, unmarried participants gave more than married participants, and participants living in a region with more exposure to markets gave more than participants living further from markets. There was no evidence that the prosocial story was more easily recalled than the control story. These results provide some support for the hypothesis that prosocial stories can increase prosociality in listeners, though the effect of hearing a single story is small.

When do supervisors punish subordinates' unethical pro-organizational behavior: Roles of moral identity and goal congruence with the group

Given that unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) violates moral standards but benefits the organization at the same time, supervisors' responses to this behavior could be equivocal although it is supposed to be punished. Previous research, however, has centered on antecedents of UPB, less is known about its consequences, especially how supervisors respond to subordinates' UPB. Integrating social identity theory with social information processing theory, this paper aims to explain when supervisors perceive subordinate UPB in a negative way, and further engage in negative leading behaviors as punishments for UPB. Results of a multi-wave, multiple-source survey suggest that subordinates' UPB is most negatively related to supervisors' trust when supervisors' moral identity is prominent and goal congruence with the group is low. Furthermore, results show that reduced trust ultimately elicits abusive supervisor behavior. These findings extend understanding of when and why supervisors punish rather than indulge subordinates who act in ethically questionable ways and provide important insights into supervisors' leading behavior from a bottom-up perspective.

The effects of psychological distance on spontaneous justice inferences: A construal level theory perspective

Objective

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of psychological distance on spontaneous justice inferences.

Methods

Two experiments were conducted using the probe recognition paradigm to directly examine whether psychological distance affects spontaneous justice inferences. In Experiment 1, the spatial distance of justice actions from the perceivers was manipulated. In Experiment 2, temporal distance was manipulated.

Results

Consistent with our expectations, the results of Experiments 1 and 2 (for spatial distance and temporal distance, respectively) consistently demonstrated the effect of psychological distance on spontaneous justice inferences. In concrete terms, participants made stronger spontaneous justice inferences when confronted with situation descriptions of justice-implying events occurring in a spatially distant location than in a proximal location (Experiment 1) and in the distant-future condition than in the near-future condition (Experiment 2).

Conclusion

These findings indicate that psychological distance can influence influence simplicity, unintentional processing of justice inferences.

Linking supervisors’ bottom-line mentality to workplace cheating behavior: examining the mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and moral identity

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how and when supervisors’ bottom-line mentality (BLM) influences workplace cheating behavior. Specifically, the authors draw upon social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the negative reciprocity norm (Gouldner, 1960) argument, to explain that supervisor BLM is likely related to organizational cynicism and subsequently those employees may engage in cheating behavior as a way to make things even with the organization. Furthermore, the authors theorized that organizational cynicism and supervisors’ BLM via organizational cynicism, increase cheating behavior among employees with a weak moral identity.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the current model, the authors collected data from 232 employees working in various Pakistani firms.

Findings

The results affirmed the authors’ moderated-mediation model. The positive indirect effects of supervisors’ BLM on workplace cheating behavior, through organizational cynicism, are moderated by employees’ moral identity.

Originality/value

This is the first study that examine the mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and employees’ moral identity in the relationship between supervisors’ BLM and workplace cheating behavior.

Collaborative Cheating in Hierarchical Teams: Effects of Incentive Structure and Leader Behavior on Subordinate Behavior and Perceptions of Leaders

What facilitates collaborative cheating in hierarchical teams, and what are its outcomes for those engaged? In two preregistered studies (N = 724), we investigated how subordinates are influenced by leaders signaling a willingness to engage in collaborative cheating, and how subordinates perceive such leaders. Participants performed a task in which they could either report their performance honestly, or cheat for financial gain. Each participant was assigned a leader who could choose to check the report's veracity. In Study 1, leaders who checked less often were perceived as more moral, trustworthy, competent, and psychologically closer than leaders who checked more often. This trustworthiness bonus translated to investments in a subsequent trust game. Study 2 revealed that these relationship benefits specifically arise for collaborative cheating, compared to competitive cheating (at the leader's expense). We conclude that collaborative cheating in subordinate-leader dyads strengthens in-group bonds, bringing people closer together and cultivating trust.

CSR Perceptions and Career Satisfaction: The Role of Psychological Capital and Moral Identity

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the macro-level has been explored quite extensively, but how it affects employee-level outcomes was only recently researched. This paper draws on insights from the micro-foundation of CSR in explaining the effect of employees’ CSR perceptions on their career satisfaction. Moreover, the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of moral identity are also explored. Data were collected from a cross-industry sample of 383 employees in Saudi Arabia. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that CSR perceptions positively affected career satisfaction, and psychological capital mediated the effect of CSR perceptions on career satisfaction. Both factors of moral identity (internalized and symbolic) positively moderated the link between CSR perceptions and psychological capital. Finally, the indirect effect of CSR perceptions on career satisfaction via psychological capital was moderated by internalized moral identity and symbolic moral identity. Organizations can enhance career satisfaction by communicating to employees about CSR programs, initiatives, and actions. Moreover, employees should be provided with a working environment that provides them with the most resources so that they can feel confident, hopeful, resilient, and optimistic.

The Impact of Employees’ Perceptions of CSR on Career Satisfaction: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between employees’ CSR perceptions and their career satisfaction. Moreover, the mediating roles of organizational pride, organizational embeddedness, and psychological capital in the relationship between CSR perceptions and career satisfaction are also examined. Finally, the moderating roles of internalized moral identity and symbolic moral identity in the relationship between CSR perceptions and career satisfaction are investigated. A cross-industry sample of employees from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was collected. The results show that CSR perceptions positively affect career satisfaction. Organizational pride, organizational embeddedness, and psychological capital mediate the link between CSR perceptions and career satisfaction. Both dimensions of moral identity (internalized moral identity and symbolic moral identity) positively moderate the effect of CSR perceptions on career satisfaction.

A question of morals? The role of moral identity in support of the youth climate movement Fridays4Future

In the past year, an unprecedented climate movement has risen among European youth, so-called "Fridays4Future" (F4F). Thousands of pupils skip school every Friday to protest for better climate politics. The public debate on the protests contains highly mixed reactions, including praise as well as condemnation. Recent theoretical accounts propose that people's engagement in community service and actions towards a greater good could be related to their moral identity. Moral identity (MI) is defined as the extent to which being moral is important to the personal identity. The current preregistered study investigates the link between moral identity and participants' support for F4F in an online survey (N = 537). Results confirm the association between participants' moral identity and their support for F4F, with the internalization scale predicting passive forms of support and the symbolization scale predicting active forms of support. Additionally, risk perception was found to play an important role. Thus, this study confirms the role of moral identity in people's pro-environmental engagement and offers new insights in the context of an important and timely issue.

Integrity and Identity: Moral Identity Differences and Preferred Interpersonal Reactions

Moral identity affects interpersonal relationships by guiding how people perceive and respond to feedback, evaluate others and select task partners and friends. Self–described principled participants (high scorers on the Integrity Scale) more strongly preferred principled–prototypic others over expedient ones and believed it possible to be more principled in one's beliefs (Study 1), preferred evaluators who regarded them as principled over expedient (Study 2), had friends who saw them as principled and paired up with friends who were themselves principled (Study 3). In contrast, expedient individuals did not display mirror–image reactions but saw merit in being both expedient and principled; they were accepting of any relevant feedback and partner preferences. Moral identity is a key link between ethical beliefs and behaviours. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A psycholexical Study of Virtues in the Dutch Language, and Relations between Virtues and Personality

Following the psycholexical approach, a list of 153 virtue descriptors was selected from a previously constructed list of trait–terms, under the assumption that virtues form a subset of traits. The virtue list was administered to 400 participants (self– and other–raters), who had to indicate the extent to which each term applied to them or to the others. Principal Component Analyses were performed yielding six factors of virtues. In addition, Big Five factors and markers of an external set of virtues were constructed. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to describe the relations between virtues, the Dutch Big Five system and other virtue systems. Compared to the other virtue systems, the present study revealed some additional domains. The overlap found with personality measures corresponds to earlier findings supporting the assumption that virtues are important traits. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Who is attracted to socially responsible organizations? Roles of job applicants' volunteer experience and motives

Purpose

Based on the multiple domain perspective and self-identity theory, this study aims to investigate the effect of job applicants' volunteer experience on their attraction to organizations that engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Moreover, it examines the mediating effect of the CSR work role definition in this relationship and proposes a moderated mediation model of how the effect of volunteer experience on organizational attractiveness through the CSR work role definition differs according to other- and self-oriented motives.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses were tested with a moderated mediation model using a scenario-based questionnaire with a sample of 146 undergraduate students in South Korea.

Findings

Job applicants' volunteer experience was positively related to attraction to socially responsible organizations, and the CSR work role definition mediated this relationship. The conditional indirect effect of job applicants' volunteer experience on their attraction to socially responsible organizations through the CSR work role definition was significant only for job applicants with lower other- and self-oriented motives.

Practical implications

The study findings suggest that organizations performing CSR should examine whether job applicants have experience with volunteering activities and the motives behind their participation in such activities.

Originality/value

This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of how job applicants are attracted to organizations that perform CSR and when such attraction is significant by considering their perception of the CSR work role definition and motives for volunteering activities.

The Ethical Education and Perspectives of Chinese Engineering Students: A Preliminary Investigation and Recommendations

To develop more effective ethics education for cross-cultural and international engineering, a study was conducted to determine what Chinese engineering students have learned and think about ethics. Recent research shows traditional approaches to ethics education are potentially ineffective, but also points towards ways of improving ethical behaviors. China is the world's most populous country, graduating and employing the highest number of STEM majors, although little empirical research exists about the ethical knowledge and perspectives of Chinese engineering students. When compared to engineering students in the US, Chinese engineering students (1) received less ethics education; (2) the form of the education they did receive stressed virtue ethics or the development of moral character; (3) conceive of ethics in contradistinction to the law, where ethics deals with matters of right and wrong not covered by legality. Based on these findings and research in moral psychology and behavioral ethics, recommendations are made for improving engineering ethics education both in China and abroad.

Leader honesty/humility and subordinate organizational citizenship behavior: a case of too-much-of-a-good-thing?

Purpose

On the basis of theories of social cognition and moral identity and the meta-theoretical principle of “too-much-of-a-good-thing,” the purpose of this study is to develop and test a model that explains when and why leader honesty/humility promotes subordinate organizational citizenship behavior directed at individuals (OCBI) as mediated through subordinate moral identity centrality.

Design/methodology/approach

In this field study, with online surveys, multisource data were collected from 218 United States Air Force officers and their subordinates. Data were analyzed with MEDCURVE SPSS macro tools.

Findings

A nonlinear indirect effect of leader honesty/humility on subordinate OCBI through subordinate moral identity centrality was found. This conditional indirect effect occurred through a curvilinear (inverted U-shape) relationship between leader honesty/humility and subordinate moral identity centrality and a positive linear relationship between subordinate moral identity centrality and OCBI.

Research limitations/implications

Cross-sectional data were collected. Future research might replicate findings using experimental and longitudinal designs.

Practical implications

Recruiting and selecting leaders who possess a moderate level of honesty/humility may serve as the first step in producing prosocial behavior during social interactions with subordinates.

Originality/value

This study extends the literature on character and leadership by applying the too-much-of-a-good-thing principle to empirically test the complex nature of the relationship between leader honesty/humility and subordinate OCBI as mediated through subordinate moral identity centrality.

Exposure to violence affects the development of moral impressions and trust behavior in incarcerated males

Individuals exposed to community violence are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior, resulting in a dramatic increase in contact with justice and social service systems. Theoretical accounts suggest that disruptions in learning underlie the link between exposure to violence and maladaptive behaviors. However, empirical evidence specifying these processes is sparse. Here, in a sample of incarcerated males, we investigated how exposure to violence affects the ability to learn about the harmfulness of others and use this information to adaptively modulate trust behavior. Exposure to violence does not impact the ability to accurately develop beliefs about agents' harm preferences and predict their choices. However, exposure to violence disrupts the ability to form moral impressions that dissociate between agents with distinguishable harm preferences, and subsequently, the ability to adjust trust behavior towards different agents. These findings reveal a process that may explain the association between exposure to violence and maladaptive behavior.

Psychological mechanisms linking ethical climate to employee whistle-blowing intention

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a perceived ethical climate influences employees’ intention to whistle-blow through internal organizational channels and incorporates the mediating role of organizational identification and moral identity as well as the moderating role of individual risk aversion.

Design/methodology/approach

The five proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis with two waves of data collected in 2016 from 667 employees in Chinese organizations.

Findings

The findings indicate that perceived ethical climate had a positive effect on employees’ internal whistle-blowing intention, which was mediated by organizational identification and moral identity. Furthermore, employees’ risk aversion weakened the effect of organizational identification, while the moderating role by moral identity on internal whistle-blowing intention was not validated.

Originality/value

This study explains the psychological mechanism of whistle-blowing intention from the perspective of social identity, which contributes to opening the “black box” of the transmitting processes from the perceived ethical climate to whistle-blowing intention. This study also extends the literature by defining a boundary condition of risk aversion that hinders organizational identification influence on employee whistle-blowing intention.

HPWS and climate for inclusion: a moral legitimacy lens

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply insights from the moral legitimacy theory to understand how climate for inclusion (CFI) is cultivated at the individual and collective levels, thereby highlighting the influence of employee perceptions of inclusion-oriented high-performance work systems (HPWS) on CFI.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-level conceptual framework is introduced to explain how employee perceptions develop about the moral legitimacy of inclusion-oriented HPWS and the subsequent influence on CFI.

Findings

CFI is theorized to manifest when employees perceive inclusion-oriented HPWS as morally legitimate according to four unit-level features. Employees with a strong moral identity will be particularly attuned to the moral legitimacy of each of the unit-level HPWS features, thereby strengthening the perceived HPWS and CFI relationship at the individual level. The convergence of individual-level perceptions of CFI to the collective level will be strongest when climate variability is low for majority and minority groups.

Practical implications

Organizations seeking to develop CFI should consider the role of HPWS and the perceived moral legitimacy of such systems. This consideration may involve policy amendments to include a broadened scope of HPWS.

Originality/value

This paper explores how employee perceptions of the moral legitimacy of HPWS can help or hinder CFI, thereby offering a novel framework for future inclusion and human resource management research.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model of Organizational Identification and Moral Identity

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) research is not new, but its importance to today's socially conscious market environment is even more evident in recent years. This study moves beyond CSR as simply the socially responsible actions and policies of organizations and focuses on the complex psychology of CSR as it relates to individuals within the organization. Given CSR can positively affect both the individuals within the organization and the organization itself, better understanding and leveraging the mechanisms and conditions of CSR that facilitate desired employee outcomes is crucial for organizational performance. However, scholars lack consensus in determining a theoretical framework for understanding how and under what conditions CSR will make an impact on employees and ultimately organizational performance. This study adds clarity by exploring the effect of perceived CSR on a more comprehensive set of employees' attitudinal and behavioral reactions (i.e., turnover intention, in-role job performance, and helping behavior) via the mediating mechanism of organizational identification and the moderating condition of moral identity. Hypotheses were derived using social identity theory. Results were based on data obtained from 340 Chinese manufacturing employee-supervisor dyads. This study found that employees' perceived CSR had an indirect relationship via organizational identification with each of the variables: (1) turnover intention, (2) in-role job performance, and (3) helping behavior. Specifically, the negative relationship between perceived CSR and turnover intention was stronger when employees had higher moral identity and the positive relationship between perceived CSR and in-role job performance and helping behavior was amplified by moral identity. Our findings show how the mediating mechanism of organizational identity and the moderating condition of moral identity work together to improve organizational effectiveness. The findings reveal several ways in which organizations can strategically focus their CSR and human resource efforts, such as applying this model and focusing on moral identity as a key indicator when evaluating employees.

The moral dimension of politicized identity: Exploring identity content during the 2012 Presidential Elections in the USA

It is well known that politicized identities are especially good predictors of collective action, but very little is known about what these identities are. We propose that moral identity content plays a central role in politicized identities. We examined this among (un)politicized Americans in the 2012 US Presidential Elections. In a longitudinal community sample of US citizens (N = 760), we tracked personal (i.e., unique) and politicized (i.e., party activist) identity content: before, during, and after the election. We compared identity content of individuals who self-labelled as politicized (i.e., active party promoters) or unpoliticized (i.e., passive party supporters): (1) Democrats (n = 69) longitudinally and (2) Republicans (n = 69) cross-sectionally to examine three hypotheses: Moral identity content (e.g., trustworthy) would be more prominent in politicized (vs. unpoliticized) identities (H1); moral identity content overlapping politicized and personal identities predict seeing the self as politicized (H2) and engaging in party activism (H3). Results largely supported H1 and H2, but only weakly supported H3. We conclude that politicized identities are moralized identities that have a self-evaluative, but not strongly action-motivation, function. We discuss the implications of our findings and method for politicization research.

Moderated mediation model of relationship between perceived organizational justice and counterproductive work behavior

Purpose

This study aimed to develop a moderated mediation model to explain the relationship between perceived organizational justice and the counterproductive work behavior (CWB) of Chinese public servants. In this model, the authors assumed that job burnout mediates the relationship between perceived organizational justice and CWB and that moral identity moderates the relationship between job burnout and CWB.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 210 public servants in China participated in this study, and their characteristics were measured by self-report tools. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test the moderated mediation model.

Findings

Analysis of the data demonstrated that perceived organizational justice, job burnout and moral identity influenced CWB. Moral identity moderated the relationship between job burnout and CWB, such that individuals with low moral identity are more likely to engage in CWB. Moreover, job burnout mediated the effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB, and the mediating effect of job burnout was moderated by moral identity. The indirect effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB through job burnout was significant among individuals with low moral identity but not among individuals with high moral identity.

Research limitations/implications

The findings highlight the self-regulatory function of moral identity in preventing CWB.

Practical implications

The study offers several significant suggestions to reduce CWB in Chinese public sector administration, such as by improving organizational justice perception, recruiting and selecting individuals with reference to their moral identity and monitoring employees’ job burnout regularly.

Originality/value

The authors developed and verified a moderated mediated model on the relationship between perceived organizational justice and CWB. The study revealed that job burnout has a mediating effect on the perceived organizational justice–CWB relation, providing important insights into the processes through which perceived organizational justice affects CWB.

A Comparison of Two Approaches for Facilitating Identity Exploration Processes in Emerging Adults

This article, using a controlled design, reports the results of an exploratory study to investigate the impact of two types of intervention strategies (cognitively vs. emotionally focused) on two types of identity processes (self-construction and self-discovery) in a culturally diverse sample of 90 emerging adult university students. A quasi experimental design was used to evaluate the relative impact of the cognitively focused self-construction and emotionally focused self-discovery strategies. Quantitative and qualitative results indicated that cognitively focused intervention strategies were most efficacious in affecting self-constructive identity processes, whereas emotionally focused intervention strategies were most efficacious in affecting self-discovery identity processes. This pattern of differential effects suggests that programs intended to broadly affect identity development should include both types of intervention strategies and should target both self-constructive and self-discovery processes.

On Ethically Solvent Leaders: The Roles of Pride and Moral Identity in Predicting Leader Ethical Behavior

The popular media has repeatedly pointed to pride as one of the key factors motivating leaders to behave unethically. However, given the devastating consequences that leader unethical behavior may have, a more scientific account of the role of pride is warranted. The present study differentiates between authentic and hubristic pride and assesses its impact on leader ethical behavior, while taking into consideration the extent to which leaders find it important to their self-concept to be a moral person. In two experiments we found that with higher levels of moral identity, authentically proud leaders are more likely to engage in ethical behavior than hubristically proud leaders, and that this effect is mediated by leaders' motivation to act selflessly. A field survey among organizational leaders corroborated that moral identity may bring the positive effect of authentic pride and the negative effect of hubristic pride on leader ethical behavior to the forefront.

When Friends' and Society's Expectations Collide: A Longitudinal Study of Moral Decision-Making and Personality across College

Early adulthood is a developmentally important time period, with many novel life events needing to be traversed for the first time. Despite this important transition period, few studies examine the development of moral decision-making processes during this critical life stage. In the present study, college students completed moral decision-making measures during their freshman and senior years of college. Results indicate that, across four years, moral decision-making demonstrates considerable rank-order stability as well as change, such that people become more likely to help a friend relative to following societal rules. To help understand the mechanisms driving changes in moral decision-making processes, we examined their joint development with personality traits, a known correlate that changes during early adulthood in the direction of greater maturity. We found little evidence that personality and moral decision-making developmental processes are related. In sum, findings indicate that while moral decision-making processes are relatively stable across a four-year period, changes do occur which are likely independent of developmental processes driving personality trait change.

Influence of the cortical midline structures on moral emotion and motivation in moral decision-making

The present study aims to examine the relationship between the cortical midline structures (CMS), which have been regarded to be associated with selfhood, and moral decision making processes at the neural level. Traditional moral psychological studies have suggested the role of moral self as the moderator of moral cognition, so activity of moral self would present at the neural level. The present study examined the interaction between the CMS and other moral-related regions by conducting psycho-physiological interaction analysis of functional images acquired while 16 subjects were solving moral dilemmas. Furthermore, we performed Granger causality analysis to demonstrate the direction of influences between activities in the regions in moral decision-making. We first demonstrate there are significant positive interactions between two central CMS seed regions-i.e., the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)-and brain regions associated with moral functioning including the cerebellum, brainstem, midbrain, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula (AI); on the other hand, the posterior insula (PI) showed significant negative interaction with the seed regions. Second, several significant Granger causality was found from CMS to insula regions particularly under the moral-personal condition. Furthermore, significant dominant influence from the AI to PI was reported. Moral psychological implications of these findings are discussed. The present study demonstrated the significant interaction and influence between the CMS and morality-related regions while subject were solving moral dilemmas. Given that, activity in the CMS is significantly involved in human moral functioning.

The Moral Self-Image Scale: Measuring and Understanding the Malleability of the Moral Self

Recent ethical decision-making models suggest that individuals' own view of their morality is malleable rather than static, responding to their (im)moral actions and reflections about the world around them. Yet no construct currently exists to represent the malleable state of a person's moral self-image (MSI). In this investigation, we define this construct, as well as develop a scale to measure it. Across five studies, we show that feedback about the moral self alters an individual's MSI as measured by our scale. We also find that the MSI is related to, but distinct from, related constructs, including moral identity, self-esteem, and moral disengagement. In Study 1, we administered the MSI scale and several other relevant scales to demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 2, we examine the relationship between the MSI and one's ought versus ideal self. In Studies 3 and 4, we find that one's MSI is affected in the predicted directions by manipulated feedback about the moral self, including feedback related to social comparisons of moral behavior (Study 3) and feedback relative to one's own moral ideal (Study 4). Lastly, Study 5 provides evidence that the recall of one's moral or immoral behavior alters people's MSI in the predicted directions. Taken together, these studies suggest that the MSI is malleable and responds to individuals' moral and immoral actions in the outside world. As such, the MSI is an important variable to consider in the study of moral and immoral behavior.

In the moral eye of the beholder: the interactive effects of leader and follower moral identity on perceptions of ethical leadership and LMX quality

Previous research indicated that leader moral identity (MI; i.e., leaders' self-definition in terms of moral attributes) predicts to what extent followers perceive their leader as ethical (i.e., demonstrating and promoting ethical conduct in the organization). Leadership, however, is a relational process that involves leaders and followers. Building on this understanding, we hypothesized that follower and leader MI (a) interact in predicting whether followers will perceive their leaders as ethical and, as a result, (b) influence followers' perceptions of leader-follower relationship quality. A dyadic field study (N = 101) shows that leader MI is a stronger predictor of followers' perceptions of ethical leadership for followers who are high (vs. low) in MI. Perceptions of ethical leadership in turn predict how the quality of the relationship will be perceived. Hence, whether leader MI translates to perceptions of ethical leadership and of better relationship quality depends on the MI of followers.

A Person-Centered Approach to Moral Judgment

Both normative theories of ethics in philosophy and contemporary models of moral judgment in psychology have focused almost exclusively on the permissibility of acts, in particular whether acts should be judged on the basis of their material outcomes (consequentialist ethics) or on the basis of rules, duties, and obligations (deontological ethics). However, a longstanding third perspective on morality, virtue ethics, may offer a richer descriptive account of a wide range of lay moral judgments. Building on this ethical tradition, we offer a person-centered account of moral judgment, which focuses on individuals as the unit of analysis for moral evaluations rather than on acts. Because social perceivers are fundamentally motivated to acquire information about the moral character of others, features of an act that seem most informative of character often hold more weight than either the consequences of the act or whether a moral rule has been broken. This approach, we argue, can account for numerous empirical findings that are either not predicted by current theories of moral psychology or are simply categorized as biases or irrational quirks in the way individuals make moral judgments.

The emotional foundations of high moral intelligence

Moral intelligence is grounded in emotion and reason. Neuroscientific and clinical research illustrate how early life co-regulation with caregivers influences emotion, cognition, and moral character. Triune ethics theory (Narvaez, 2008) integrates neuroscientific, evolutionary, and developmental findings to explain differences in moral functioning, identifying security, engagement, and imagination ethics that can be dispositionally fostered by experience during sensitive periods, but also situationally triggered. Mature moral functioning relies on the integration of emotion, intuition, and reasoning, which come together in adaptive ethical expertise. Moral expertise can be cultivated in organizations using the integrative ethical education model.