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Voting and (im)moral behavior

Hansson, Kajsa LU ; Persson, Emil and Tinghög, Gustav (2022) In Scientific Reports 12.
Abstract (Swedish)
Due to diffusion of responsibility, majority voting may induce immoral and selfish behavior because voters are rarely solely responsible for the outcome. Across three behavioral experiments (two preregistered; n = 1983), we test this hypothesis in situations where there is a conflict between morality and material self-interest. Participants were randomly assigned to make decisions about extracting money from a charity either in an experimental referendum or individually. We find no evidence that voting induces immoral behavior. Neither do we find that people self-servingly distort their beliefs about their responsibility for the outcome when they vote. If anything, the results suggest that voting makes people less immoral.
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author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Scientific Reports
volume
12
article number
22643
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85145408449
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/s41598-022-24360-w
language
Swedish
LU publication?
no
id
123cd0ae-0d41-4cc7-ba1f-34c8ce8e0aed
date added to LUP
2024-01-30 11:19:52
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:56:29
@article{123cd0ae-0d41-4cc7-ba1f-34c8ce8e0aed,
  abstract     = {{Due to diffusion of responsibility, majority voting may induce immoral and selfish behavior because voters are rarely solely responsible for the outcome. Across three behavioral experiments (two preregistered; n = 1983), we test this hypothesis in situations where there is a conflict between morality and material self-interest. Participants were randomly assigned to make decisions about extracting money from a charity either in an experimental referendum or individually. We find no evidence that voting induces immoral behavior. Neither do we find that people self-servingly distort their beliefs about their responsibility for the outcome when they vote. If anything, the results suggest that voting makes people less immoral.}},
  author       = {{Hansson, Kajsa and Persson, Emil and Tinghög, Gustav}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  month        = {{12}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Voting and (im)moral behavior}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24360-w}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41598-022-24360-w}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}