Episodic simulation in immoral behavior: Inflation or inhibition?

Although extensive research has examined immoral behavior, little is known about how the role of episodic simulation plays on immoral behavior. Two experiments adopted the text priming paradigm to verify two opposing theories-the imagination inflation hypothesis and the imagination inhibition hypothesis. To be specific, this study investigated whether episodic simulation increases or decreases participants' general willingness to immoral behavior, and further explored the mechanism and boundary conditions underlying the result. Experiment 1 revealed that simulating low immoral texts significantly increased self-reported intention to engage in such behavior, whereas no significant difference was observed in high immoral behavior. The result was mediated by increasing scene vividness and behavioral reasonableness. Experiment 2 replicated the result of Experiment 1 and further found that regardless of the immoral level, simulating immoral texts made participants more likely to commit actual immoral behavior (i.e., lying for financial gain). Experiment 2 also found people with high moral sensitivity and moral disengagement are more likely to be influenced by episodic simulation and behaved immorally. Overall, this study supported the imagination inflation hypothesis and found the moderating role of behavioral characteristics and moral traits. Furthermore, this study provides cross-cultural evidence supporting the imagination inflation hypothesis, extending previous findings beyond Western samples.