Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Accurate beliefs about the social world are essential to adaptive social functioning. However, people's perceptions of the social world are often inaccurate. Across three experiments (N = 991), we examine people's estimates of the prevalence of ethical and unethical behaviors for men and women. In Study 1, participants reported their own engagement in common unethical behaviors (e.g., cheating on a romantic partner), and then estimated how often men and women engaged in those same behaviors. As predicted, people overestimated the frequency of unethical behavior—an effect which was amplified for men. In Study 2, participants again overestimated the frequency of unethical behaviors, but also underestimated the frequency of ethical behaviors. These effects were again amplified for estimates of men's behaviors. Study 3 replicated these findings using hypothetical scenarios. Overall, we find consistent evidence of moral cynicism concerning the behaviors of others. People systematically assume more wrongdoing and less virtue than actually exists.