People often call out hypocritical behavior by telling the erring individual to “practice what they preach.” However, as neuroscientist and author Dr. Dean Burnett points out, maintaining that moral h**h ground is a considerable amount of work for anyone.
“Hypocrisy allows you to appear principled without having to be so, which is much easier than adhering to strict principles,” Dr. Burnett wrote in an article for The Guardian.
A person may also act hypocritically because they have a self-serving bias, which, according to Dr. Burnett, is part of human nature. As he noted, we inherently evaluate our capabilities far more highly than they really are because of our brain’s natural wiring.
“The brain is riddled with cognitive and memory biases that are geared towards making us feel like we’re good and decent and capable, no matter what the reality,” Dr. Burnett explained.
Behavioral scientist Erman Misirlisoy shared a similar sentiment, stating that self-interest is one of the strongest (if not the strongest) catalysts for hypocritical behavior. In an article for Medium, he noted that many people may say that “personal costs” are enough to outweigh the “intention to act morally.”
“Essentially, we all want to act fairly until we are put on the spot and are facing our own personal consequences,” he wrote.
In his article, Misirlisoy pointed out another observation: we tend to hate hypocrites more than outright liars. According to him, it’s because the former employs a “double layer of deception,” which is one layer more than the latter, who simply says they “act morally when they haven’t.”
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Misirlisoy dropped one unavoidable truth: we’ve all had our hypocritical moments. However, a sensible, upstanding person will subject themselves to honest self-criticism and admit when they fail to live up to their own standards.
“If we’re going to lie, that’s bad enough; let’s try not to fool and distract other people by pointing the finger,” he wrote. “(That) may be a good foundation for integrity.”
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