BlueSky Thinking Summary

A hypocrisy study by Jacob Teeny reveals that much of it is based on the surprise caused by someone acting in a contradictory way, not based on moral grounds.

Put differently, the findings of the study are that persons sure about a position deviate to a more hypocritical degree from those human beings where actions are unexpected.

Teeny and colleagues manipulated surprise by having participants make judgments about individuals who violated either moral or pragmatic preferences.

Same experiments that found a correlation between heightened surprise and stronger perceptions of hypocrisy occurred in both conditions.

In non-moral cases—where a person prefers one flavor of ice cream but serves another—the degree of surprise was—at least—a significant determinant of judgment.

Their findings suggest that perceptions of hypocrisy could be reduced when openness to changing one's view is signaled.

It forces us to reconsider how we evaluate inconsistencies in other people by reflective assessment of biases and expectations.

How could surprise affect what you judge today?