Exploring The Motivation Mechanism Of Sequential Immoral Behavior

The cause of immoral behavior has been a popular research topic in the area of modern moral psychology.Scholars including Bandura have tried to construe single immoral behavior from perspectives such as moral disengagement,self-serving justifications and double-distancing mechanism,and proposed that these psychological strategies led to repeated immoral behavior,thus further attracting researchers' attention onto the initial and subsequent sequential behavior representations of morality.The specific forms of such sequential behavior can be classified into four types based on the impact of initial moral(or immoral)behavior on the subsequent behavior,namely moral behavior-moral behavior,immoral behavior-immoral behavior,moral behavior-immoral behavior,and immoral behavior-moral behavior.The first two forms reflect the consistence of behavior,i.e.moral consistence and immoral consistence while the latter two reflect the balance of behavior,also known as moral balance,i.e.moral licensing of moral behavior-immoral behavior and moral cleansing of immoral behavior-moral behavior.Previous studies hold that the four forms represent moral regulation paths of sequential moral behavior in different directions.Sequential immoral behavior in this study refers to initial and subsequent behavior as an immoral sequence,i.e.consistent habitual and repeated immoral behavior.There are three inspiring studies on sequential immoral behavior.Kouchakia and Gino(2016)construed sequential immoral behavior from the perspective of forgetting noted that the reason why individuals repeat immoral behavior lied in the fact that they forgot previous immoral behavior,which was a type of self-protection made by memory against the threats(from immoral behavior)for moral self-concept.They named such phenomena as unethical amnesia.Based on the regulatory focus theory,Zhang et al(2014)proposed that prevention-repetition effect exists in various moral behavior fields,i.e.individuals with strong prevention focus often repeat previous moral or immoral behavior in subsequent behavior decision-making due to the motivation to maintain the current condition established by previous behavior.A study focused on the impact of regulatory focus on the moral behavior of consumers conducted by Schwabe et al(2018)showed that individuals would repeat previous moral or immoral consumption behavior when their prevention focus was activated or adjust their initial and subsequent consumption behavior with moral licensing or moral cleansing when their promotion focus was activated.However,above studies were carried out among western population.Further research and validation are needed before applying these study results to eastern context.In addition,studies on moral consistence and moral licensing suggested that the construal level of individuals was a major moderator,i.e.the mental representation of abstract high construal level or concrete low construal level in individuals about their initial behavior.Such representation would impact sequential moral(or immoral)behavior of individuals.In other words,the construal level(abstract/ concrete)of individuals has a significant impact on his or her sequential immoral behavior.With Chinese individuals as subjects,this study attempts to validate and explore the psychological mechanism and process that underpin individuals' sequential immoral behavior.Based on memory theories,regulatory focus and regulatory fit theories and construal level theories,2340 research participants were included in 7 experiments that explored the psychological mechanism and process of sequential immoral behavior from perspectives of forgetting,self-regulation of motivations and mental representation,with strategies to prevent,intervene and improve sequential immoral behavior.The findings are as following:Firstly,the impact of memory forgetting on sequential immoral behavior is not as significant as the results of previous studies suggested.Autobiographical memory content and memory accuracy,including memory about moral rules,would change after initial immoral behavior.The sharing dimension of autobiographical memory plays the partial mediation role between initial and subsequent immoral behavior.Nonetheless,the explain validity of memory forgetting about sequential immoral behavior is not steady and cannot validate the statement that memory forgetting resulted in sequential immoral behavior.According to conclusions of Study 1 and 2,forgetting seems to fail to construe habitual immoral behavior.Secondly,self-regulation of motivations can construe the sequential immoral behavior.In other words,this study proves the impact of motivation on sequential immoral behavior.The regulatory fit between chronic regulatory focus and situational regulatory focus is the key psychological motivation to the consistency of immoral behavior.This study reveals the effect of regulatory fit-sequential immoral behavior.Specifically,individuals dominated by chronic prevention focus often repeat initial behavior and are more likely to display the prevention-repetition effect of immoral behavior.There is a certain degree of cross-cultural stability in this effect,which would not evade over time.After the regulatory fit between chronic regulatory focus and situational regulatory focus is achieved,the rightness and participation of current behavior would enhance the behavior deviation of subsequent immoral behavior.The possibility of subsequent immoral behavior would be higher even after the regulatory fit is achieved in individuals who are dominated by chronic promotion focus.In addition,the moral ambiguity of initial behavior moderates the mediator of regulatory fit over the sequential immoral behavior.Differences in the extent of moral ambiguity of initial behavior result in varied impact of regulatory fit on sequential immoral behavior.The impact of regulatory fit on the possibility of continuing immoral behavior in individuals would be significant when there is a low degree of moral ambiguity in the initial behavior,presenting sequential immoral behavior.Conclusions of Study 3,4 and 5 suggest that initial immoral behavior with lower frequency and intensity would more likely to result in subsequent immoral behavior,providing unique perspective for the prevention of sequential immoral behavior.The findings reveal that understanding the psychological mechanism and process,including the self-regulation of motivation,mental representation and the fit of these chronic characters with the situational clue,helps reshape the moral behavior of individuals from the perspective of the prevention of sequential immoral behavior.Thirdly,the construal level justifies the varied impact of the self-regulation of motivation on sequential immoral behavior resulted from differences in the moral ambiguity of initial behavior.To be specific,the construal level could play the moderator role or mediator role depending on the moral ambiguity of initial immoral behavior.With a high degree of moral ambiguity in the initial behavior,individuals with concrete low construal level would be more likely to continue immoral behavior after the regulatory fit is made while those with abstract high construal level would be less likely to continue immoral behavior after the regulatory fit is formed.The moral licensing effect of moral-immoral would be displayed in sequential behavior when the degree of moral ambiguity of the initial behavior is low.Compared with those with abstract high construal level,individuals with concrete low construal level are more likely to continue immoral behavior.Possible interpretation about this phenomenon can be that when individuals tend to make concrete low construction about behavioral event,realistic factors such as the ambiguity,the time taken and the temporary interest make moral behavior not a priority while abstract high construal level enables individuals to reflect on the core moral standards and value rules that guide their behavior,which would enhance self-control,change the impact of regulatory fit on sequential immoral behavior and make individuals determined with the pursuit for long-term goals.This study suggests that self-recognition of individuals should include the understanding of the self-regulation of motivations and mental representations.Special attention should be attached to the impact of the fit between individual chronic characters and situational clue on individual behavior,which would make it easier for individuals to understand sequential immoral behavior with a rational,specific and life basis.The study therefore proposes to build the effective path to improve sequential immoral behavior by effectively enhancing individual self-control,rational use of individual-situation interaction and establishing the education system that integrates moral practices and moral knowledge,thus understanding,preventing and intervening sequential immoral behavior in a de-stigmatizing manner.This study manipulated the actual behavior of the subjects in the laboratory context,in other words,immoral behavior studied in this study does not involve serious violation of moral rules and the consequences of the immoral behavior are not related to major interests of the respondents.However,major violations of moral norms often start with seemingly unimportant immoral behavior with no severe consequences,which justifies the practical significance of this study.