The Illusion of Moral Superiority

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Moral Psychology
• Cognitive Bias

Background:

• Individuals often perceive themselves as more virtuous than others.
• This perceived moral superiority is widespread but lacks direct empirical quantification.
• Existing theories on positive self-belief do not fully explain moral self-enhancement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the irrationality of perceived moral superiority.
• To compare the magnitude of moral self-enhancement against other positive self-evaluations.
• To investigate the relationship between irrational moral superiority and self-esteem.

Main Methods:

• Surveying 270 participants on self-perceptions versus the average person.
• Assessing traits across core social perception dimensions: morality, agency, and sociability.
• Utilizing novel methods to measure the degree of self-enhancement.

Main Results:

• Virtually all participants exhibited irrational inflation of their moral qualities.
• The magnitude of irrational moral superiority was significantly greater than in agency or sociability.
• Irrational moral superiority was not correlated with participants' self-esteem levels.

Conclusions:

• Moral superiority represents a uniquely potent and common form of positive illusion.
• This finding challenges existing theories linking positive self-beliefs primarily to self-esteem.
• The functional purpose of this pervasive moral self-enhancement remains an open question.