Building A Social Psychology Of Conscience

Abstract

We are each the hero of our own story.² This saying captures two often-overlooked aspects of human lives in the world of social psychology. First, a great deal of research about people focuses on a single point in time, omitting the multiple situations we live in and the fact that our lives grow, develop, and change over time. Second, in our self-understanding, we are not neutral judges of our goodness or badness; rather, we tend to validate ourselves, our actions, and our choices. Social psychologists classically study the influence of the actual or imagined presence of others on people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior.³ Human behavior involves interaction, either directly, in a situation, or indirectly, by planning for the future or thinking about the past. Within the panoply of motives, drives, and factors that shape our behavior is one aspect that social psychologists and sociologists have vastly underplayed in modern times, namely, that we are moral creatures. The word “moral” was used more or less interchangeably with “social” in the 1700s and 1800s by thinkers such as Adam Smith and David Hume,⁴ suggesting that these concepts were not treated as distinctly as they are today. This historical usage, I will argue, represents a more accurate conception of the importance of morality to human beings than one typically finds in current social science models.

Three psychological truths … First, the world is filled with both good and evil—was, is, will always be. Second, the barrier between good and evil is permeable and nebulous. And third, it is possible for angels to become devils and, perhaps more difficult to conceive, for devils to become angels.

Phillip Zimbardo¹