More on the Al Gore Effect

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Marginal 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 self-regulation,” or a “moral thermostat,” or the “portfolio effect,” as Tyler Cowen calls it.

A few samples:

* “Makes sense from a social signaling POV. If you’re perceived as good, it means you’ve done enough to reap the social benefits.”

* “Does this explain the phenomenon of moral scolds caught cheating? ‘I, Eliot Spitzer, am a hero for my fight against the financial industry. So I can afford to cheat on my wife.’”

* “Whoa! So I guess that means all that Catholic guilt people have heaped scorn upon for decades had a purpose. Who knew?”

I think all of that is essentially dead on.

Religious guilt is all about making people feel guilty so that they’ll comply with the church and give it money, enforcing what the church perceives to be a beneficial social code.

While I suspect it’s a bit more complicated, I think moral self-regulation probably does play a pretty big role for moral crusaders who get caught with their pants down. They’ve committed their lives to doing good at a sweeping, social level; they can surely be allowed to pluck a little from the public till or bop a secretary. In some cases, though, it certainly seems the moral crusading stems from the desire to sin. Ted Haggard hates himself for wanting to sleep with men and do crystal meth, so he becomes a pastor at a megachurch (of course, one could just consider this moral self-regulation working in the opposite direction, from sin to the desire to do good). In Spitzer’s case, of course, maybe he just loves hookers.

As for social signaling, that certainly makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Though, the effect here seems to be about one’s own self-image as “moral.” Of course, that internal self-image could simply exist to create the right signaling to your fellow hairless monkeys.

Anyone here have any of their own experiences with moral self-regulation? Post them in the comments.