The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect
Image by BL1961 via Flickr
Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard this Earth Day — it could be bad for the environment.
That is: If you’re too-well-satisfied that you’re a good greenie, you’re more willing to cut yourself slack when you hurt the environment.
Call it the Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect.
According to a new study in Psychological Science, humans engage in a process called “moral self-regulation.” Basically, we’re constantly calculating the trade-off between being able to see ourselves as good people and the cost of engaging in all that non-advantageous goodness.
You might expect that being prompted (primed) to think of yourself as a good person would make you more altruistic or moral — but, in fact, the exact opposite appears to be the case. Primed to think about what a good person you are, your most likely reaction is to think you’ve paid your morality dues and go on about your business.
The researchers tested it this way, as recounted by Neuronarrative:
In the first experiment, participants were asked to write a self-relevant story using words that referred to either their positive or negative traits. After finishing, they were told that the research lab was interested in supporting social awareness and usually asks participants if they would like to make a small donation to the charity of their choice. Participants were told they could write down the charity and the amount they wanted to donate (note, they were not aware of any link between the story they wrote and the charity donation). The result: participants who used positive words about themselves in their stories donated one fifth as much money as those who used negative words.
In a follow-up experiment, subject were asked to pay to control pollution from a manufacturing plant. As in the first experiment, those primed with positive words about themselves chose the less-altruistic option: to pollute and maximize profit.
So, what does this mean for you, personally?
If you’ve given some money to charity at Christmas, you’ll probably excuse yourself from volunteering all year (or, at least you’d have an easier time doing so).
If you feel you’ve proven your non-prejudiced bona fides by combating racism in private or public, you’re more likely to forgive yourself for acting prejudiced in your own life.
And, if you’ve replaced every bulb in your home with a compact fluorescent, you’re more likely to forget about the impact of flying around on a private jet (celebrities only).
Now, I’m of the opinion that most “green” personal choices are already completely about moral vanity — their scale makes them meaningless while endowing the environmentalist with a great sense of self-worth. So, the real effect of Earth Day, I think, is for this smugness to get a significant one-day boost. Which, the research would suggest, gives the green-conscious an internal license to be total bastards in some other area of their lives.
Happy Earth Day!
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
[...] an internal license to be total bastards in some other area of their lives. Happy Earth Day! Neuroworld Blog Archive The Al Gore
Ah, this is old news. As long as you are on the side of angels, then nobody really minds that you fly your personal 747 around the world to promote the cause.
Be Like Bono is the new Be Like Mike
[...] to one recent study, the portfolio effect [...]
[...] Revolution links yesterday’s item about the Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect, and the commenters over there have some interesting applications of the whole idea of “moral [...]
[...] to one recent study, the portfolio effect [...]
[...] overcome our built-in deficiencies. But neuro-behavioral research doesn’t stop, and the latest news from the front lines is even more discouraging. We are all hypocrites [...]
[...] from True/Slant [...]
[...] On: The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect [...]
[...] to one recent study, the portfolio effect [...]
[...] last night re people who think of themselves as "good." That link led to Ryan Sager’s The Al Gore’s Fraggin’ Giant Mansion Effect. A [...]
[...] moral identity leads people to feel licensed to act immorally.” In other words, as Ryan Sager points out, acting green one day might leave you more willing to indulge your planet-destroying consumption [...]
[...] may remember from the other day, the Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect. Or, as it’s alternately known, moral [...]
[...] data-supported, political-scientific reason why those “Gore Effect” (different from the Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect) stories hold people’s attention — aside from pure irony. It’s not just that [...]
[...] you do something good one day doesn’t mean you’re given a free pass the next. Although a recent study found in Psychological Science suggests that quite a few people do in fact act that [...]
[...] theory is moral self-regulation. From hundreds of Internet comments threads, it seems clear that bicyclists really [...]
[...] Ryan Sager – Neuroworld – The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect – True/Slant trueslant.com/ryansager/2009/04/22/the-neuroscience-of-earth-day – view page – cached Neuroworld » The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect Comments Feed Neuroworld A Tourist in Neuroworld Poll: Neuroenhancing Drugs Meanwhile on Earth Day… — From the page [...]
[...] Cowen calls it portfolio theory. I’ll call it moral self-regulation: Chance a U.S. household that owns a Prius also owns an SUV: 1 in [...]
And the fact that behavior is sometimes nuanced with contradictory and hypocritical motives is what… news? Yes, this is a perennial discovery for those just entering adulthood. But guess what, discovering that people have cynical motives doesn’t change the the world’s imperatives one whit. And the fact that others are hypocrites doesn’t give you a free pass from examining your own motives and behavior. At least not for all those who make it over sophomore’s hill, deciding to be more than intellectual teenagers for the rest of their lives.
[...] climate conference continues, what better time to revisit an old favorite here at Neuroworld: The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect. You may remember, from the study recounted in that post, the concept of “moral [...]
[...] is, of course, not the first time we’ve talked about moral self-regulation. But this new study (PDF) is the first I’ve [...]
[...] climate conference continues, what better time to revisit an old favorite here at Neuroworld: The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect. You may remember, from the study recounted in that post, the concept of “moral [...]