ABSTRACT
Moral behavior is central to people's self-views. This chapter explores how people think of their real-life behaviors, that are self-defined as lacking in morality. It considers how this affects peoples' attempts at addressing moral lapses displayed by themselves or other members of their group. Shame and guilt are often referred to as 'moral emotions'. People have been found to display a range of self-protective strategies to cope with the threat of considering themselves or being considered by others as lacking in morality. The chapter also considers different strategies people may use to justify their moral lapses. The experimental work reviewed in the chapter illustrates some of the ways in which this can be achieved. The danger of sanctioning people for past moral failures – instead of offering them improvement opportunities – is that they become resilient to such criticism and are tempted to downplay moral concerns.
