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The centrality of remembered moral and immoral actions in constructing personal identity.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Stanley, ML; Bedrov, A; Cabeza, R; De Brigard, F
Published in: Memory (Hove, England)
February 2020

There is a widespread belief that morally good traits and qualities are particularly central to psychological constructions of personal identity. People have a strong tendency to believe that they truly are morally good. We suggest that autobiographical memories of past events involving moral actions may inform how we come to believe that we are morally good. In two studies, we investigated the role of remembered past events involving moral and immoral actions in constructing perceived personal identity. For morally right actions only, we found that remembered actions judged to be more morally right relative to less morally right were more central to personal identity (Study 1). We then found that remembered morally right actions were more central to personal identity than remembered morally wrong actions (Study 2). We discuss these findings in relation to recent research on morality and personal identity.

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Published In

Memory (Hove, England)

DOI

EISSN

1464-0686

ISSN

0965-8211

Publication Date

February 2020

Volume

28

Issue

2

Start / End Page

278 / 284

Related Subject Headings

  • Self Concept
  • Morals
  • Mental Recall
  • Memory, Episodic
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Adult
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
 

Citation

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Stanley, M. L., Bedrov, A., Cabeza, R., & De Brigard, F. (2020). The centrality of remembered moral and immoral actions in constructing personal identity. Memory (Hove, England), 28(2), 278–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1708952
Stanley, Matthew L., Alisa Bedrov, Roberto Cabeza, and Felipe De Brigard. “The centrality of remembered moral and immoral actions in constructing personal identity.Memory (Hove, England) 28, no. 2 (February 2020): 278–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1708952.
Stanley ML, Bedrov A, Cabeza R, De Brigard F. The centrality of remembered moral and immoral actions in constructing personal identity. Memory (Hove, England). 2020 Feb;28(2):278–84.
Stanley, Matthew L., et al. “The centrality of remembered moral and immoral actions in constructing personal identity.Memory (Hove, England), vol. 28, no. 2, Feb. 2020, pp. 278–84. Epmc, doi:10.1080/09658211.2019.1708952.
Stanley ML, Bedrov A, Cabeza R, De Brigard F. The centrality of remembered moral and immoral actions in constructing personal identity. Memory (Hove, England). 2020 Feb;28(2):278–284.

Published In

Memory (Hove, England)

DOI

EISSN

1464-0686

ISSN

0965-8211

Publication Date

February 2020

Volume

28

Issue

2

Start / End Page

278 / 284

Related Subject Headings

  • Self Concept
  • Morals
  • Mental Recall
  • Memory, Episodic
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Adult
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology