INFLUENCE OF INTRINSIC RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION AND INCREASED STAKES ON MORAL HYPOCRISY

Abstract

Research has found that when primed religiously, those higher in intrinsic religiosity tend to behave less hypocritically than those lower in intrinsic religiosity. However, literature on intrinsic religiosity, impression management, Conformity and Universalism indicates that this relationship should be in the opposite direction. Limitations of previous studies and findings on the effect of differing decision stakes on adherence to moral values suggests that decision stakes could moderate the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and hypocrisy. In an online survey, Christian and non-religious individuals completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire, the 'Age-Universal' I-E Scale - 12 and assigned tasks to themselves and another participant using a coin flip or not. This allowed the testing of hypocrisy by seeing whether they chose to fudge the results of the coin flip. Analyses found that decision stakes was not associated with intrinsic religiosity or religion for hypocritical participants. It was also found that Conformity was positively correlated with intrinsic religiosity while Universalism was not. This furthers our understanding of how intrinsic religiosity, religiosity and personal values are related. Interestingly, moral hypocrisy was lower in this study than previous experiments and this may be due to the unique circumstances in Singapore and this sample's lower intrinsic religiosity.