Are liars ethical? On the tension between benevolence and honesty

• Deception is sometimes perceived to be ethical. • Prosocial liars are perceived to be more moral than honest individuals. • Benevolence may be more important than honesty for judgments of moral character. • The moral principle of care is sometimes more important than justice. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o We demonstrate that some lies are perceived to be more ethical than honest statements. Across three studies, we find that individuals who tell prosocial lies, lies told with the intention of benefitting others, are perceived to be more moral than individuals who tell the truth. In Study 1, we compare altruistic lies to selfish truths. In Study 2, we introduce a stochastic deception game to disentangle the influence of deception, outcomes, and intentions on perceptions of moral character. In Study 3, we demonstrate that moral judgments of lies are sensitive to the consequences of lying for the deceived party, but insensitive to the consequences of lying for the liar. Both honesty and benevolence are essential components of moral character. We find that when these values conflict, benevolence may be more important than honesty. More broadly, our findings suggest that the moral foundation of care may be more important than the moral foundation of justice. " To me, however, it seems certain that every lie is a sin… " —St. Augustine (circa 420 A.D.) " By a lie, a man annihilates his dignity. " —Immanuel Kant (circa 1797) " …deception is unethical. " —Chuck Klosterman, The New York Times, " The Ethicist " (2014) For centuries, philosophers and theologians have characterized lying as unethical (Kant, 1785; for review, see Bok, 1978). Similarly, ethics scholars have argued that honesty is a critical component of moral character (e. Not only do people lie to benefit themselves (e.g. lying on one's tax returns), but people also lie to benefit others (e.g. lying about how much one likes a gift) or to serve both self-interested and prosocial motives. This broader con-ceptualization of lying to include prosocial or mixed-motive deception has been largely ignored in ethical decision-making research. In studies of ethical decision-making, scholars have routinely confounded deception with self-serving motives and outcomes. This is true of both theoretical and empirical investigations of deception For example, ethics scholars who have conflated lying with self-serving motives have investigated behaviors like cheating on one's …