Self-Reflection And Morality Essay

There are multiple studies and articles that have supported the fact that there is a clear relationship between self-reflection and morality. Like other studies, Gino and Mogilner have established this link. In their study, the level of moral behaviour was recorded after priming ‘money’ and ‘time’ to trigger self-reflection, or self-interest, within individuals. This was demonstrated in a series of four experiments involving constructing sentences, finding music, questionnaires and counting money/days. Thus, it can be concluded that the given study’s main link is between self-reflection and morality, rather than the independent variables, themselves. It is interesting to note that the three variables are not clearly defined in the study’s paper, raising questions of uncertainty due to the breadth and lack of distinction of ‘time’, as it can be interpreted as minutes, months or years, for example. While the study has clearly shown a link between different variables, there are issues of external validity, internal validity and generalizability, which need to be considered.

The study concludes that triggering self interest based on money leads to unethical behaviour. In fact, this correlation that money corrupts is supported in many articles including Stella and Willer (2014) who have suggested that the impact of money is so influential and effective that people will act unfairly or will take advantage of circumstances to ensure it is theirs. At the same time, thinking about money and its effects can be the leading contributor to stress. The American Psychology Association‘s recent surveys in America have concluded that matters regarding money are a major influence of stress (American Psychology Association, 2014). It has been concl...

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...oral (Wren, 1990). For example, people aged between 18 and 25 are high money conscious (Prince, 1991) affecting their levels of morality, compared to staff, who are less financially burdened. Despite this tendency, the results show strong evidence that this is a minor issue, and the trend of the results would still remain the same, had this consideration been factored into the experiments.

The study that Gino and Mogilner have conducted is conclusive in its evidence. Their methodology to find a convincing link between self-reflection and morality is reliable and understandable, however, we should not assume that there is a link between time, money and morality, as there may be other variables, which affects ethical behaviour other than time. Further, the results are not substantial enough to stand alone in generalizing the results to an entire population.