Moral exhibitionism: what is it and what are its objectives?

Let's see what moral exhibitionism is, a form of behavior linked to the world of Social Psychology.

There are many people who sometimes engage in behaviors aimed at trying to show others their high moral stature.

The problem comes when these behaviors are carried out in a very habitual way and with little or no subtlety. This is what is known as moral exhibitionism.and with this article we will be able to understand the implications of this phenomenon, the characteristics that it has and the situations in which more is in the habit of being given.

What is moral exhibitionism?

Moral exhibitionism, also called moral showing off, is a type of behavior by which an individual tries to exaggeratedly display his or her high moral qualities, seeking approval and recognition from others.seeking the approval and recognition of others. Therefore, this behavior would be aimed at showing their respectability on a moral level. However, this type of action sometimes achieves the opposite effect on the target audience. We will see this later.

This search for recognition that moral exhibitionism entails is generally associated with two characteristics. In the first place, the person tries to make it clear that, with respect to a certain topic that implies morality in some way, he meets the criteria demanded by society, so that his behavior is correct, or he can even go further and show that his behavior is far above the majority of people, reproaching the rest for not following his example.

The other main characteristic that we would find would be the objective with which the individual would participate in a moral discourse, whether spoken or written. And it is that the person would do so with the intention, not simply to counter-argue the position of the interlocutor, but to to show how morally respectable he is, so the focus would always be on himself.The focus would always be on him or herself.

By extension, he would point out the other's position as inferior from a moral point of view, but he would always do so in relation to his own, which would be the center of the issue and what would be driving his behavior.

Paradoxically, the morality or ethics of moral exhibitionism would be very questionable, since in reality, the effect it would be generating would be to encourage very extreme positions, generate disputes and significantly increase the degree of cynicism.. We will see these effects later in the examples of the demonstrations.

Search for recognition

The next question we could ask ourselves is from whom the person who practices moral exhibitionism seeks recognition. The first response we encounter is people who belong to their own group of thought, i.e., those who share their beliefs and values. In this case, the moral exhibitionist would use his actions as a mechanism to put his identity on record in front of the group.. By presenting himself before his peers as they expect him to do, he would be achieving recognition and approval, in this case of a moral nature.

But it can also happen that the individual carries out these behaviors not in front of his moral allies, but in front of those who have a moral cut. in the face of those who have a different moral stance and therefore represent a potential source of confrontation..

In this case, the person would engage in moral exhibitionist behaviors aimed at demonstrating his superiority, in order to automatically win the dispute at stake regarding morality, pretending to make it clear that the position of the opponent is the opposite of the desirable one and should therefore be abandoned immediately.

But these are not the only situations in which this mechanism can be put into practice. There is a third option, which is that of feigned moral exhibitionism, something very recurrent, for example, in politicians.. In this case, the candidates would purposely present a behavior that would denote a great moral height in a certain aspect related to the collective to which they are referring, but obviously these underlying beliefs do not have to be real, far from it.

Different manifestations of moral exhibitionism

Moral exhibitionism can manifest itself in different ways. Let us look at the five most common cases.

1. Adherence

The first of the situations we can easily find would be that of adherence to an already formulated idea. that of adherence to an already formulated idea.. In this case, a person would expose a moral approach that would receive the acceptance of the group. Then, a second person, who would be the one developing this moral exhibitionism, would express his ideas, in line with what has been stated, with the aim of showing that he belongs "to the same moral side" and thus participate in the group acceptance.

An example would be a person who criticizes politicians, claiming that none of them can be trusted. Given the positive effect on the group, a second interlocutor may add to the idea, saying that this is indeed the case and that he knows it well because he likes to keep abreast of current affairs and knows that all political leaders lie, regardless of their sign.

2. The escalation of morality

A second situation that occurs on a regular basis is that of morality escalation. Faced with an event, a group of people may start to express their moral ideas about it, so that each one will always try to propose something that will put him in a higher moral position than the previous one, starting a sort of escalation of morality.This is the beginning of a sort of feedback escalation.

To visualize this with an example, we can imagine a group of friends watching a news item about a person who has committed a crime. The first of them might say that he deserves a good reprimand. The second would say that it is not enough, that he should go to prison. The third, continuing the escalation, would say that the others are too soft and that for what the person in question has done, he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.

3. Moral invention

The third way in which the person who engages in moral exhibitionism manifests himself or herself is simply to inventing moral issues that seem to have gone unnoticed by the rest of the group, and this leaves him in a magnificent position to make clear his superiority in this area. to make clear his superiority in this respect. If the move works out well for him, he can receive the longed-for approval he seeks.

Any situation is susceptible to be considered moral by the one who likes to show his superiority in this aspect. An example might be someone who criticizes other passers-by for talking too loudly in the street because they might be disturbing the neighbors, when in fact their tone of voice need not be exaggerated and no one may have been annoyed until they said so.

4. The aggravation

There is a fourth manifestation of moral exhibitionism. In this case it would be the one used as a response in a discussion in which the person chooses to show himself to be really offended, angry or aggrievedIn this case, the person uses the intensity of his moral convictions to make it clear that his is the real truth in the matter under discussion, and no other. In this way, he uses the intensity of his emotion to reinforce the ideas put forward.

This mechanism runs the risk of getting mixed up with the escalation we were talking about before and becoming a kind of competition to see which of the interlocutors is the most offended or has been most affected by the issue discussed, fighting among all of them to prove that each one is the one who is feeling the most intense emotions about it and therefore losing the focus of the idea that was initially being debated.

An example would be any political discussion in which one person would show a position on a particular issue and the other, in opposition, would be extremely upset to see how he or she is capable of expressing such a morally reprehensible opinion. The former could choose to end the discussion, to debate rationally or to choose to escalate and therefore be equally aggrieved by the position of the opponent, creating a loop that is difficult to solve.

5. The evidence

The fifth type of manifestation would rather be a sort of wild card that the person who practices exhibitionism can use if he feels cornered in the defense of his position. It would be a matter of to show the obviousness of his position, arguing that it is so obvious that his position is the correct one that he does not need to give more arguments about it, since the problem is being faced by the other party.The problem is with the other person, who is blinded and unable to see reality. This is obviously a fallacy.

It is a very recurrent mechanism and is easily linked to the aggravation and intense emotion that we saw in the previous point. Faced with a debate, one person may try to go the rational route while the other may be very offended by the low moral character of his opponent and simply state that it is obvious that the position he defends is the correct one, so he does not need to argue further.

Bibliographical references:

• Grubbs, J.B., Warmke, B., Tosi, J., James, A.S., Campbell, W.K. (2019). Moral grandstanding in public discourse: Status-seeking motives as a potential explanatory mechanism in predicting conflict. PloS one.
• Grubbs, J.B., Warmke, B., Tosi, J., James, A.S. (2020). Moral grandstanding and political polarization: A multi-study consideration. Journal of Research in Personality. Elsevier.
• Tosi, J., Warmke, B. (2016). Moral grandstanding. Philosophy & Public Affairs. Wiley Online Library.