{"id":6358,"date":"2009-05-19T06:04:54","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T06:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2009\/05\/holier-than-thou-effect.html"},"modified":"2009-05-19T06:04:54","modified_gmt":"2009-05-19T06:04:54","slug":"holier-than-thou-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2009\/05\/holier-than-thou-effect.html","title":{"rendered":"“Holier-than-thou effect”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, it’s certainly an Internet wide phenomenon<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\nMost people are adamant: They would never do it. Ever. Never deliberately inflict pain on another person, just to obtain information. Ever artificially inflate the value of some financial product, just to take advantage of others’ ignorance. Certainly never, ever become a deadbeat and accept a government bailout.
\n[…]
\nIn recent years, social psychologists have begun to study what they call the holier-than-thou effect. They have long known that people tend to be overly optimistic about their own abilities and fortunes — to overestimate their standing in class, their discipline, their sincerity.
\n[…]
\nresearchers have found that people similarly overestimate their willingness to do what’s morally right, whether to give to charity, vote or cooperate with a stranger. In the end, their less generous predictions about peers’ behavior tend to be dead-on accurate — for themselves as well as others in the study.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not surprising. It’s why Paul wrote these words to the Galatians:<\/p>\n

ESV Galatians 6:1<\/a>\u00a0\u00b6 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We have a tendency to think that we wouldn’t commit the same crimes and sins but we deceive ourselves if we don’t realize that we are capable of them and given the right situation we might do the things that we swore we wouldn’t do. This passage enables us to keep that in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, it’s certainly an Internet wide phenomenon: Most people are adamant: They would never do it. Ever. Never deliberately inflict pain on another person, just to obtain information. Ever artificially inflate the value of some financial product, just to take advantage of others’ ignorance. Certainly never, ever become a deadbeat and accept a government bailout.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,402,397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-religion-2","category-social-issues"],"yoast_head":"\n"Holier-than-thou effect" - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2009\/05\/holier-than-thou-effect.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Holier-than-thou effect" - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yes, it’s certainly an Internet wide phenomenon: Most people are adamant: They would never do it. 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