Unravelling the moral self

Project Information

MORALSELF

Grant agreement ID: 679000

DOI

10.3030/679000

Project closed

EC signature date 18 July 2016

Start date 1 September 2016

End date 28 February 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 498 958,00

EU contribution

€ 1 498 958,00

Coordinated by

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MORALSELF (Unravelling the moral self)

Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2022-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Our self-concept is closely tied to moral concerns. We cannot but to perceive ourselves as being morally good or bad. Humans differ, though, in the extent to which moral concerns are central to their identity. Influential theories suggest that the moral self-concept plays a central role for prosocial and moral behavior.
This project focused on the development of the moral self-concept, that is, the degree to which it is important for humans to be a morally good person. In particular, the early emergence, the functional mechanisms, and the neurocognitive correlates of the moral self were examined. For example, it explored when children start to consider themselves as moral persons, and whether this relates to their prosocial behaviors such as sharing, helping and comforting. One particular focus of the project was on the role of emotions for the moral self-concept, that is, to which extent emotional processes mediate the relation of the moral self to actual prosocial behavior.
The project has societal implications as it helps us to obtain a clearer picture of what constitutes human morality and as it reveals the psychological mechanisms that motivate people to behave prosocially, that is, to engage in sharing, helping, or comforting.
Overall, the project demonstrated that the moral self-concept emerges in the preschool years and is distinct from other self-concept domains (e.g. the academic self-concept). It relates in various ways to children’s prosocial behavior and has predictive value for preschoolers’ future social behavior. It seems to relate to other-oriented behavior by the anticipation of negative emotions when not acting prosocially. Moreover, the neurocognitive studies demonstrated that the extent to which it is important for humans to be a morally good person relates to early processing of morally relevant information. This suggests that how morally one views oneself affects how information about social life is perceived.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project consisted of several work packages (WP).
Within WP 1, we investigated the internal structure of the moral self-concept and its relation to prosocial behavior (i.e. helping, sharing, consoling) in preschool children. The main results are that the moral self-concept emerges in the late preschool years. It is distinct from other aspects of the self-concept (e.g. the academic self). It relates to and partly even predicts children’s prosocial behavior. In a longitudinal study, we found stability of the moral self-concept across 18 months. We further examined measurement invariance of the moral self-concept. Dissemination: Results from WP 1 have been published in Cognitive Development (Doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101033) and in the European Journal of Developmental Psychology (doi: 10.1080/17405629.2022.2090333). Results were presented at international conferences (inter alia, Biennial Meeting of the SRCDt, 2021; 26th Biennial Meeting of the ISSBD).
In WP 2, we investigated emotional related to the moral self-concept. Our studies highlight a mediation effect of anticipated emotions about refraining from prosocial action for the relation between the moral self-concept and prosocial behavior. Further work focused on how the moral self-concept relates to guilt, normative stances, and punishment tendencies. We showed the unique role of the moral self-concept rather than normative views for actual prosocial behavior. Moreover, an ongoing study suggests that the moral self-concept relates to perceiving guilt when transgressing norms. Dissemination of WP 2: The developmental results on the interplay of emotions and the moral self are published in Cognitive Development (Doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100893) and in Cognition & Emotion (Doi: 10.1080/02699931.2022.2067133). The study on the predictive value of the moral self-concept beyond normative stances has been presented at the Conference of the Jean Piaget Society in 2021 and has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
In WP 3, we used electroencephalography (EEG), eye-tracking, and fMRI in order to reveal the neural and psychophysiological correlates of the moral self-concept. In one line of work, we investigated how the moral self-concept related to the neural correlates of perceiving moral content in visual scenes. The extent to which it is important for children and adults to be a morally good person was related to ERP components that are indicative of rather early, automatic processes. These findings suggest that a high moral identity goes together with the chronical activation of moral schemas that guide a person’s perception of the social world. We are currently finishing analyses of further studies that relied on eye tracking/pupillometry as well as fMRI in order to explore how the moral self-concept modulates the neurocognitive processes involved in charitable decisions. Dissemination of WP 3: The work based on EEG has been published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (Doi: 10.1093/scan/nsz016) and Developmental Science (Doi: 10.1111/desc.13232).
WP 4 constituted a longitudinal study in which we explored the developmental precursors of the emerging moral self-concept. Key findings are that a coherent and internally structured moral self-concept emerges between 4 and 5 years, and that it is meaningfully related to young children’s actual prosocial behavior and their experience of guilt when violating a norm. Dissemination of WP 4: First findings of WP 4 are presented at the Biennial Meeting of the ISSBD in 2022.
WP5 was dedicated to a theoretical integration of the concept of the moral-self concept into the literature on early prosocial development. Dissemination of WP 5: Three theoretical pieces in Current Opinion in Psychology (Doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.09.003) Progress in Brain Research (doi: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2020.05.006) and Developmental Review (doi: 10.1016/j.dr.2020.100933) included a consideration of the role of the moral self-concept as a motivational basis and integrative function of early prosocial behavior. In two recent review chapters (to be published in the Handbook of Prosociality and the Handbook of Moral Development), the role of the moral self-concept for prosocial and moral development was discussed in greater detail.
Beyond the planned work packages, we investigated the role of the moral self-concept for a number of pressing societal concerns. We explored its relation to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic (published in Journal of Health Psychology, Doi: 10.1177/1359105320980793). Moreover, we applied moral identity to research on the so-called climate crisis. More precisely, we explored how moral identity relates to people’s support of the Fridays4Future movement (published in Plos One, Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248353). Finally, we explored the psychological factors that relate to and prevent activism and radicalism in adolescents (published in Psychology, Crime & Law (doi: 10.1080/1068316X.2020.1850725).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project is the first to investigate the early emergence and the internal structure of the moral-self concept in the preschool years. Moreover, it enters novel grounds by examining the neural and cognitive mechanisms that relate the moral self-concept to prosocial behavior. By the end of the project, we expect to have a deeper understanding of the developmental trajectory, psychological mechanisms and neural correlates of the moral self-concept.

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