Memory misfires help selfish maintain their self-image

When people behave selfishly, they have a reliable ally to keep their self-image well-polished - their own memory. When asked to recall how generous they were in the past, selfish people tend to remember being more benevolent than they actually were, according to a series of experiments by Yale psychologists and economists at University of Zurich published April 29 Communications. " When people behave in ways that fall short of their personal standards, one way they maintain their moral self-image is by misremembering their ethical lapses," said Yale's Molly Crockett , assistant professor of psychology and senior author of the study. Psychologists have long been interested in how people balance their self-interest with their desire to be viewed as moral. To justify self-serving behaviors to themselves and others, people engage in a process called motivated reasoning - for example, when leaving a stingy tip, customers might convince themselves that their server didn't deserve any more. But a team of researchers led by Crockett and Ryan Carlson, a Ph.D. student at Yale and first author of the study, wanted to explore whether people's memories of their behaviors help them preserve their moral self-image, perhaps even negating the need to employ motivated reasoning.