STUDY 2: Honour, Morality, Reputation (1)

The idea is that honour concerns play a role in which moral values/domains will become more important in judgments of moral characters and actions.

In honour killings for instance it is evident that Loyalty motive is more important than the care/harm or integrity/honesty motive! In this case, CARE and LOYALTY  motives conflict.

Frequency of lying in honour cultures for instance serves a face-saving or honour-maintenance function, in that people lie in public in order to cover up the reputation-damaging acts they to in private. In this case, HONESTY and LOYALTY motives conflict.


Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., & Van den Bergh, B. (2010). Going green to be seen: status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 98(3), 392.

BEHAVING MORALLY IS RELATED TO HAVING A GOOD SOCIAL IMAGE/REPUTATION
Why do people purchase proenvironmental “green” products? We argue that buying such products can be construed as altruistic, since green products often cost more and are of lower quality than their conventional counterparts, but green goods benefit the environment for everyone. Because biologists have observed that altruism might function as a “costly signal” associated with status, we examined in 3 experiments how status motives influenced desire for green products. Activating status motives led people to choose green products over more luxurious nongreen products. Supporting the notion that altruism signals one’s willingness and ability to incur costs for others’ benefit, status motives increased desire for green products when shopping in public (but not private) and when green products cost more (but not less) than nongreen products. Findings suggest that status competition can be used to promote proenvironmental behavior.

A good reputation is more valuable than money.
—Publilius Syrus, 100 B.C.