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I'm not the person I used to be: The self and autobiographical memories of immoral actions.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Stanley, ML; Henne, P; Iyengar, V; Sinnott-Armstrong, W; De Brigard, F
Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. General
June 2017

People maintain a positive identity in at least two ways: They evaluate themselves more favorably than other people, and they judge themselves to be better now than they were in the past. Both strategies rely on autobiographical memories. The authors investigate the role of autobiographical memories of lying and emotional harm in maintaining a positive identity. For memories of lying to or emotionally harming others, participants judge their own actions as less morally wrong and less negative than those in which other people lied to or emotionally harmed them. Furthermore, people judge those actions that happened further in the past to be more morally wrong than those that happened more recently. Finally, for periods of the past when they believed that they were very different people than they are now, participants judge their actions to be more morally wrong and more negative than those actions from periods of their pasts when they believed that they were very similar to who they are now. The authors discuss these findings in relation to theories about the function of autobiographical memory and moral cognition in constructing and perceiving the self over time. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Published In

Journal of experimental psychology. General

DOI

EISSN

1939-2222

ISSN

0096-3445

Publication Date

June 2017

Volume

146

Issue

6

Start / End Page

884 / 895

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Morals
  • Memory, Episodic
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Emotions
  • Cognition
  • Adult
 

Citation

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Stanley, M. L., Henne, P., Iyengar, V., Sinnott-Armstrong, W., & De Brigard, F. (2017). I'm not the person I used to be: The self and autobiographical memories of immoral actions. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 146(6), 884–895. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000317
Stanley, Matthew L., Paul Henne, Vijeth Iyengar, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Felipe De Brigard. “I'm not the person I used to be: The self and autobiographical memories of immoral actions.Journal of Experimental Psychology. General 146, no. 6 (June 2017): 884–95. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000317.
Stanley ML, Henne P, Iyengar V, Sinnott-Armstrong W, De Brigard F. I'm not the person I used to be: The self and autobiographical memories of immoral actions. Journal of experimental psychology General. 2017 Jun;146(6):884–95.
Stanley, Matthew L., et al. “I'm not the person I used to be: The self and autobiographical memories of immoral actions.Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, vol. 146, no. 6, June 2017, pp. 884–95. Epmc, doi:10.1037/xge0000317.
Stanley ML, Henne P, Iyengar V, Sinnott-Armstrong W, De Brigard F. I'm not the person I used to be: The self and autobiographical memories of immoral actions. Journal of experimental psychology General. 2017 Jun;146(6):884–895.

Published In

Journal of experimental psychology. General

DOI

EISSN

1939-2222

ISSN

0096-3445

Publication Date

June 2017

Volume

146

Issue

6

Start / End Page

884 / 895

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Morals
  • Memory, Episodic
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Emotions
  • Cognition
  • Adult