Article Version of Record

I and my friends are good people: The perception of incivility by self, friends and strangers

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Hess, Ursula
Cossette, Michel
Hareli, Shlomo

Abstract / Description

Three studies were conducted to assess self-serving biases in participants’ beliefs about incivility, its antecedents and consequences as well as restitution behaviors and forgiveness as a function of whether a behavior was performed by themselves, strangers or friends. Participants who imagined themselves in the active role not only described their own behavior as more excusable, congruent with an actor-observer bias, but more importantly, they showed strong self-serving biases with regard to all their reactions to the situation – even though this leads to logical contradictions. This self-serving expectation generalized to friends and contrasted sharply with expectations for strangers, whose behaviors were described as logically consistent. The difference between what is expected from self and friends and what is expected from others may account for much of the popular moral outrage at incivility in various social realms.

Keyword(s)

perceived incivility self-serving-biases restitution behaviors forgiveness emotions

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2016-02-29

Journal title

Europe's Journal of Psychology

Volume

12

Issue

1

Page numbers

99–114

Publisher

PsychOpen GOLD

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

Citation

Hess, U., Cossette, M., & Hareli, S. (2016). I and my friends are good people: The perception of incivility by self, friends and strangers. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(1), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i1.937
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Hess, Ursula
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Cossette, Michel
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Hareli, Shlomo
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-21T09:59:38Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-21T09:59:38Z
  • Date of first publication
    2016-02-29
  • Abstract / Description
    Three studies were conducted to assess self-serving biases in participants’ beliefs about incivility, its antecedents and consequences as well as restitution behaviors and forgiveness as a function of whether a behavior was performed by themselves, strangers or friends. Participants who imagined themselves in the active role not only described their own behavior as more excusable, congruent with an actor-observer bias, but more importantly, they showed strong self-serving biases with regard to all their reactions to the situation – even though this leads to logical contradictions. This self-serving expectation generalized to friends and contrasted sharply with expectations for strangers, whose behaviors were described as logically consistent. The difference between what is expected from self and friends and what is expected from others may account for much of the popular moral outrage at incivility in various social realms.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Citation
    Hess, U., Cossette, M., & Hareli, S. (2016). I and my friends are good people: The perception of incivility by self, friends and strangers. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(1), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i1.937
  • ISSN
    1841-0413
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/992
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1184
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i1.937
  • Keyword(s)
    perceived incivility
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    self-serving-biases
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    restitution behaviors
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    forgiveness
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    emotions
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    I and my friends are good people: The perception of incivility by self, friends and strangers
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    1
  • Journal title
    Europe's Journal of Psychology
  • Page numbers
    99–114
  • Volume
    12
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record