The Surprising Costs of Silence: Asymmetric Preferences for Prosocial Lies of Commission and Omission

Across 7 experiments (N = 3883), we demonstrate that communicators and targets make egocentric moral judgments of deception. Specifically, communicators focus more on the costs of deception to them-for example, the guilt they feel when they break a moral rule-whereas targets focus more on whether de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2018-01, Vol.114 (1), p.29-51
Main Authors: Levine, Emma, Hart, Joanna, Moore, Kendra, Rubin, Emily, Yadav, Kuldeep, Halpern, Scott
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Asymmetry
Cancer
Choice Behavior
Communication
Deception
Disclosure
Economics
Employee Layoffs
Ethics
Female
Games
Guilt
Health care expenditures
Health Care Services
Health services
Human
Humans
Judgment
Lay people
Male
Medicine
Moderators
Moral judgment
Morality
Morals
Oncologists
Patients
Physician-Patient Relations
Preferences
Prosocial Behavior
Social Behavior
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Summary:Across 7 experiments (N = 3883), we demonstrate that communicators and targets make egocentric moral judgments of deception. Specifically, communicators focus more on the costs of deception to them-for example, the guilt they feel when they break a moral rule-whereas targets focus more on whether deception helps or harms them. As a result, communicators and targets make asymmetric judgments of prosocial lies of commission and omission: Communicators often believe that omitting information is more ethical than telling a prosocial lie, whereas targets often believe the opposite. We document these effects within the context of health care discussions, employee layoffs, and economic games, among both clinical populations (i.e., oncologists and cancer patients) and lay people. We identify moderators and downstream consequences of this asymmetry. We conclude by discussing psychological and practical implications for medicine, management, behavioral ethics, and human communication.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/pspa0000101