Intentions to Steal and the Commitment Problem. The Role of Moral Emotions and Self-Serving Justifications

Abstract

This study focuses on determinants underlying young persons” self-reported intentions to steal a small amount of money. From an evolutionary standpoint, theft is a frequency-dependent strategy that may have been favored because it gave individuals a reproductively-relevant advantage in the competition for scarce resources. Although human groups do not tolerate the act of stealing, theft is still very common. Our study is rooted in Robert Frank's theory of the moral commitment problem. Moral emotions such as anticipated guilt are devices designed by evolutionary forces to motivate cooperative behavior in situations entailing a commitment problem. However, the anticipation of guilt feelings can be circumvented by self-serving justifications, therefore increasing the likelihood to steal. A large region-wide sample of adolescents (N = 3694) is used to analyze whether anticipated moral guilt and self-serving justifications mediate the effects of empathy, fear sensitivity, and perceived peer disapproval in their relationship to intentions to steal. Several propositions are tested in a latent variable model within the framework of SEM. Visual scenarios depicting an opportunity to take a small amount of money from a stranger are used to elicit participants” self-reported intentions to steal. Results suggest that empathic concern and empathic perspective-taking, perceived peer disapproval, and fear sensitivity affect the likelihood of theft by influencing anticipated guilt and self-serving justifications that, in turn, respectively reduce and promote the likelihood of theft.