EFFECT OF RECALL ON MORAL CLEANSING: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

This experimental study employed an incentivized online experiment to investigate: (1) the effect of recalling immoral behaviour in the social domain on moral cleansing and (2) the effect of type of contribution task engaged in on overall contributions. A total of 129 participants were randomly assigned to recall (a) treatment: an incident from the past where they behaved immorally in the interpersonal domain or (b) control: a morally neutral incident. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of two types of contribution tasks, namely, a philanthropic task or a dictator game. The preliminary analysis consisted of text and sentiment analysis which revealed that recalling immoral behaviour from the interpersonal domain results in a higher negative sentiment as captured by a higher average negativity score, than when recalling a morally neutral incident. However, it is found that while recalling immoral behaviour from the social domain does not trigger moral cleansing, the type of contribution task engaged in affects the contributions made by participants. Evidence confirms that individuals on average contribute higher amounts in philanthropic tasks as opposed to dictator transfers.