Why people tend to dislike hypocrites

New York, Jan 30: People tend to hate hypocrites because they cover up their bad behaviour, which sends a false sigl, misleading others to think that they are virtuous whereas they actually are not, a study shows. The findings showed that people dislike hypocrites more than those who openly admit to engaging in a behaviour that they disapprove of.

But what makes hypocrites especially bad is that they condemns the moral failings of other people but behaves badly himself or herself.

“People dislike hypocrites because they unfairly use condemtion to gain reputatiol benefits and appear virtuous at the expense of those who they are condemning — when these reputatiol benefits are in fact undeserved,” said lead author Jillian Jordan, psychological scientist at Yale University, Connecticut, US. People also might dislike hypocrites because their words and deeds are inconsistent with their behaviour.

However, the study proposes a different hypothesis, based on the idea of false siglling. Hypocrites are disliked because they use their condemtion to mislead other people about their moral behaviour. Hypocrites also inspire moral outrage because they dishonestly sigl their moral goodness that is, their condemtion of immoral behaviour sigls that they are morally upright, but they fail to act in accordance with these sigls. This theory of false siglling helps explain why hypocrites are often regarded as liars, but, are actually more misleading than liars. Liars, by contrast, avoid moral condemtion and are thus less likely to malign or shame other people. “Condemtion can act as a stronger sigl of one’s own moral goodness than a direct statement of moral behaviour,” the researchers noted. (IANS)