Doing Good Leads to More Good : The Reinforcing 5 Power of a Moral Self - Concept

9 10 Abstract What is the role of self-concept in motivating moral behavior? On one 11 account, when people are primed to perceive themselves as “do-gooders”, conscious 12 access to this positive self-concept will reinforce good behavior. On an alternative 13 account, when people are reminded that they have done their “good deed for the day”, 14 they will feel licensed to behave worse. In the current study, when participants were 15 asked to recall their own good deeds (positive self-concept), their subsequent char16 itable donations were nearly twice that of participants who recalled bad deeds, or 17 recent conversation topics, consistent with an account of moral reinforcement. In 18 addition, among participants reporting good deeds, those who did not note whether 19 they were recognized or unrecognized by other people donated significantly more 20 than participants who took note of others’ responses. In sum, when people are primed 21 to see themselves as good people, who do good for goodness’ sake, not to obtain 22 public credit, they may be motivated to do more good. 23 Q4 24 25