Morality in the flesh: on the link between bodily self-consciousness, moral identity and (dis)honest behaviour

Marina Scattolin; Maria Serena Panasiti; Salvatore Maria Aglioti

doi:10.1098/rsos.220061

Morality in the flesh: on the link between bodily self-consciousness, moral identity and (dis)honest behaviour

R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Aug 31;9(8):220061. doi: 10.1098/rsos.220061. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Marina Scattolin¹, Maria Serena Panasiti^{2

3}, Salvatore Maria Aglioti^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Sapienza University of Rome and CLN2S@Sapienza, Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, Italy.
² Santa Lucia Foundation, IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
³ Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

The sense of owning a body (ownership) and controlling its actions (agency) are two main pillars of bodily self-consciousness (BSC). Although studies suggest that BSC signals and morality may be associated, whether such association has a positive or negative direction remains unclear. To investigate this issue, we conducted two pre-registered, online studies, in which a total of 1309 participants completed BSC- and morality-related questionnaires and undertook a task where they could cheat for monetary gain. We found that participants with high sense of ownership displayed high moral identity, which supports the notion that ownership is used to associate the self with positive characteristics. Moreover, high agency was associated with increased moral identity when sense of power is high. Results regarding deception are less clear, and might relate to the impact of COVID-19. Our results concerning moral identity may inspire policies that rely on changes of corporeal awareness to contrast immorality.

Keywords: body ownership; body self-consciousness; honesty; moral behaviour; moral identity; sense of agency.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6158554