Description of psychological details after doing bad things

In a series of seven experiments, one was carried out in this way. The researchers invited participants to the laboratory to play a game to predict the pros and cons of copper coins. Before the game starts, there will be a 10 one-dollar bill on the table, and participants will always throw out ten copper coins. Before each coin toss, they have to guess whether it is heads or tails. They can put a bill in front of them once.

It is worth noting that the copper plate here is not a real copper plate, but a virtual copper plate on the computer. Because of environmental layout, computer screen design and other factors, participants will think that only they know the result of throwing copper coins. So, in order to get more money, some people choose to lie.

For example, the results on the computer in front are obviously negative. Theoretically, it is impossible to get money, but some people choose to deceive researchers and say that they have lost the edge. Faced with this situation, researchers actually know the result of each throw, so they can secretly record whether everyone is lying.

You can't remember all the bad things you did? Psychology reveals the truth of "immoral amnesia"

Results Among the 70 participants, 42.9% lied and got more money, while the other 57. 1% told the truth completely. Two weeks later, the participants were invited back to the lab again. They were asked to recall two things, one was the details of playing a coin toss game two weeks ago, and the other was the details of dinner two weeks ago.

The results show that liars are as clear as honest people about the clarity of dinner memories; But for liars, the memory of coin toss is more vague than that of honest people. It shows that the liar's memory ability is not bad as a whole, except that he lied.

The above example is only a small part of the seven experiments. In other experiments, some people compare participants' memories of immoral behavior and non-immoral behavior in real life; Or let them imagine that they are the protagonist of doing bad things in the script, and then recall the content of the script afterwards. In both cases, the researchers observed "immoral amnesia".

You can't remember all the bad things you did? Psychology reveals the truth of "immoral amnesia"

This kind of amnesia did not appear immediately after the incident, but only after a period of time. Researchers observed this phenomenon at least two days, four days and two weeks after the incident. If it's about the bad things that others do, it's not particularly vague. The severity of "immoral amnesia" can even predict whether people will commit other "small evils" again!

Generally speaking, people will have two emotions after violating the moral standards in their hearts: guilt (I did something bad! ) and shame (god, I'm such a bad person! )。 Guilt usually happens after or just after the behavior, while shame gradually appears with the passage of time. Shame is related to emotional or anxiety disorders, but guilt is not. Perhaps to maintain their mental health, perhaps to maintain a false good image, people consciously or unconsciously refrain from recalling these disgraceful past events.