Breaking Bad (Promises): The Role of Moral Disengagement in Reducing Dissonance
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Senior
Major
Psychology/Applied Behavior Analysis
Minor
Gender and Diversity Studies
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Jana Hackathorn
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Purpose: The term infidelity refers to emotional and physical acts of betrayal that counter the norm of romantic exclusivity (Blow & Hartnett, 2005). Given that engaging in infidelity is directly in opposition with relational commitment, recent research has examined the roles of cognitive dissonance in decisions to engage in infidelity. Cognitive dissonance theorizes that individuals experience conflict if their actions/attitudes are in contrast to other actions/attitudes, causing psychological discomfort (i.e., dissonance), which they try to reduce using one of many dissonance reduction strategies (Mcgrath, 2017). For example, perpetrators of infidelity may engage in trivialization by minimizing the importance of a conflicting belief/behavior, such as claiming the event was “only one night” or that the extradyadic partner “meant nothing” (Foster & Misra, 2013). As infidelity is often deemed a moral transgression, infidelity research has also examined the role of moral disengagement as a means of engaging in the behavior and remaining guilt free. Moral disengagement occurs when people lessen the implications of their perceived immoral actions (Bandura et al, 1996). Importantly, moral disengagement mechanisms are highly similar to dissonance reduction strategies and no known research has examined how similar the theorized mechanisms are to each other. This study aims to utilize similar methodology of previous literature (Foster & Misra, 2013; Lisman & Holman, 2022) and examine the if moral disengagement plays a dissonance reduction role regarding romantic infidelity among college students.
Procedure: Romantically committed participants are asked to come into the research lab to take a “test” that will determine whether they have cheated on their current partner. Prior to arrival, participants are randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the unfaithful group, the “test” indicates that they have cheated on their partner; in the faithful group, the results indicate they are in a committed relationship. After receiving the test results, participants complete a measure of affect (Devine et al, 1991) and then moral disengagement (Lisman & Holman, 2022). Participants also complete measures of relationship satisfaction (Hendrick, 1988) and susceptibility to infidelity (Buss & Shackelford, 1997) as potential covariates.
Expected Results: Data collection began in September 2025. In accordance with theory, it is expected that the unfaithful group will have higher negative affect scores and higher moral disengagement scores than the faithful group.
Conclusions and Implications: The current study seeks to advance research by investigating whether moral disengagement is a valid cognitive dissonance reduction strategy.
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Breaking Bad (Promises): The Role of Moral Disengagement in Reducing Dissonance
Purpose: The term infidelity refers to emotional and physical acts of betrayal that counter the norm of romantic exclusivity (Blow & Hartnett, 2005). Given that engaging in infidelity is directly in opposition with relational commitment, recent research has examined the roles of cognitive dissonance in decisions to engage in infidelity. Cognitive dissonance theorizes that individuals experience conflict if their actions/attitudes are in contrast to other actions/attitudes, causing psychological discomfort (i.e., dissonance), which they try to reduce using one of many dissonance reduction strategies (Mcgrath, 2017). For example, perpetrators of infidelity may engage in trivialization by minimizing the importance of a conflicting belief/behavior, such as claiming the event was “only one night” or that the extradyadic partner “meant nothing” (Foster & Misra, 2013). As infidelity is often deemed a moral transgression, infidelity research has also examined the role of moral disengagement as a means of engaging in the behavior and remaining guilt free. Moral disengagement occurs when people lessen the implications of their perceived immoral actions (Bandura et al, 1996). Importantly, moral disengagement mechanisms are highly similar to dissonance reduction strategies and no known research has examined how similar the theorized mechanisms are to each other. This study aims to utilize similar methodology of previous literature (Foster & Misra, 2013; Lisman & Holman, 2022) and examine the if moral disengagement plays a dissonance reduction role regarding romantic infidelity among college students.
Procedure: Romantically committed participants are asked to come into the research lab to take a “test” that will determine whether they have cheated on their current partner. Prior to arrival, participants are randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the unfaithful group, the “test” indicates that they have cheated on their partner; in the faithful group, the results indicate they are in a committed relationship. After receiving the test results, participants complete a measure of affect (Devine et al, 1991) and then moral disengagement (Lisman & Holman, 2022). Participants also complete measures of relationship satisfaction (Hendrick, 1988) and susceptibility to infidelity (Buss & Shackelford, 1997) as potential covariates.
Expected Results: Data collection began in September 2025. In accordance with theory, it is expected that the unfaithful group will have higher negative affect scores and higher moral disengagement scores than the faithful group.
Conclusions and Implications: The current study seeks to advance research by investigating whether moral disengagement is a valid cognitive dissonance reduction strategy.