Loneliness and Moral Identity Jinfeng (Jenny) Jiao, University of Iowa, USA Jing Wang, University of Iowa, USA

ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH

Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802

We examine how loneliness influences moral identity—the extent to which being a moral person is important to an individual’s identity. Across three studies, we show lonely people consider being a moral person as less important to their identity, and this effect of loneliness on moral identity is mediated by empathy.

[to cite]: Jinfeng (Jenny) Jiao and Jing Wang (2015) ,"Loneliness and Moral Identity", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 11, eds. Echo Wen Wan and Meng Zhang, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 161-162.

[url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/1018912/volumes/ap11/AP-11

[copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. Loneliness and Moral Identity Jinfeng (Jenny) Jiao, The University of Iowa, USA Jing (Alice) Wang, The University of Iowa, USA

EXTENDED ABSTRACT loneliness decreased moral identity. To test whether empathy medi- We examine how loneliness influences moral identity—the ex- ates the effect of loneliness on moral identity, we conducted a media- tent to which being a moral person is important to an individual’s tion analysis, using loneliness as the independent variable, empathy identity. The extant literature has focused on the consequences of as the mediator, and moral identity as the dependent variable. Results moral identity, such as how the centrality of moral identity affects confirmed significant overall indirect effect of loneliness on moral people’s reactions to uncommon moral. In this research, however, we identity (estimated mean indirect effect = -.01, BC 95% CI: [-.0201, explore an important antecedent of moral identity—loneliness. Our -.0072]. The results support our hypothesis that the negative effect of paper is the first to show that loneliness will make consumers less loneliness on moral identity is mediated by empathy. likely to consider being a moral person as important to their identity. Study 2 employed a loneliness (lonely vs. non-lonely) by em- We further show that lonely people are less empathetic, and it is this pathy (continuous) between-subjects design, where loneliness was reduced empathy that makes lonely people less likely to consider be- manipulated and empathy was measured. Undergraduate students (N ing a moral person as important to their identity. = 167) were first randomly assigned to one of the two loneliness con- Moral identity refers to the degree to which being moral is im- ditions (lonely vs. non-lonely). In the lonely (non-lonely) condition, portant for one’s identity (Hardy & Carlo, 2011). In this resarch, we participants were asked to write a time they felt very lonely (con- follow the previous literature (e.g., Cameron & Payne, 2012) and fo- nected). Then they completed the empathy scale and the Internaliza- cus on Internalization moral identity, examining how it is affected by tion moral identity scale. The results showed a significant two-way feelings of loneliness. Loneliness refers to a complex set of feelings interaction between loneliness and empathy (b = .11, t = 2.90, p < that occurs when an individual feels socially isolated: such undesir- .01), such that when empathy was low (-1SD), temporarily induced able subjective feelings of social isolation drive individuals to seek loneliness led to a lower moral identity (b = -.52, t = -2.26, p < .05). fullfillment of their needs (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010). Whereas However, when empathy was high (+1SD), the effect of loneliness the majority of previous research has focused on the consequences on moral identity disappeared (b = .44, t = -1.92, p > .05). of moral identity, we examine a particular antecedent of moral iden- The objective of study 3 is to show further support for our hy- tity—feelings of loneliness. We propose that the mechanism respon- pothesis that empathy mediates the negative effect of loneliness on sible for lessening the importance of moral identity lies in empathy, moral identity. The study employed a 2 (loneliness: lonely vs. non- which is a multidimensional construct with cognitive, emotional, lonely) by 2 (empathy: empathetic vs. control) between-subjects de- and conditioning components (M. Davis, 2004). Our research fol- sign, where both variables were manipulated. Undergraduate students lows the previous research (e.g.,(Einolf, 2008; Laufer & Gillespie, (N = 277) were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental 2004; Niezink, Siero, Dijkstra, Buunk, & Barelds, 2012; Schroeder, conditions. The loneliness manipulation was identical to those used Dovidio, Sibicky, Matthews, & Allen, 1988) and operationalized the in study 2. Then participants were randomly assigned to one of two construct of empathy with a measure of empathic concern. Specifi- (empathetic vs. control) conditions. In the empathetic condition, par- cally, we predict that: ticipants viewed 15 compassion-inducing images (Oveis, Horberg, & Keltner, 2010) and were instructed to feel empathy when viewing Hypothesis 1: Loneliness decreases moral identity. pictures. In the control condition, participants did not receive instruc- tion to experience empathy, and they viewed 15 emotionally neutral scenic pictures. Consistent with the previous results, a 2 (loneliness) Hypothesis 2: The negative impact of loneliness on moral iden- by 2 (empathy) ANOVA on the moral identity scores revealed a sig- tity is moderated by empathy. nificant two-way interaction (F(1, 274) = 4.60, p = 0.01), such that In study 1, we show that loneliness negatively affects moral participants who wrote about a lonely experience had a higher moral identity when they made efforts to experience empathy (M = identity, and that such an effect is mediated by empathy. In study 2, empathy 6.29, SD = 1.12) than when they did not (M = 5.47, SD = 1.18, we manipulated loneliness and measured empathy and moral iden- control tity. We show that when participants were temporarily induced to t = 3.21, p < .001). However, empathy did not affect moral identity feel lonely, they reported having reduced moral identity only when in the non-lonely condition. Participants in the non-lonely condition they experienced low empathy. For those who had high empathy, the had similar mean ratings of moral identity, regardless of the empathy manipulation (M = 5.71, SD = 1.35; M 5.76, SD = 1.26, t = temporarily induced loneliness did not reduce their moral identity. empathy control Finally, in study 3, we manipulated loneliness and empathy orthogo- 3.21, all p >.10). In study 3, we manipulated loneliness and empathy nally and replicated the results of study 2. Specifically, when partici- orthogonally and replicated the results of study 2. pants felt lonely, empathy boosted their reduced moral identity. Across the three studies, our results show converging evidence The objective of study 1 was to test our hypotheses that lone- that empathy mediates the negative effect of loneliness on moral liness reduces moral identity (H1), and that the effect is mediated identity. As predicted, results showed that higher empathy could by empathy (H2). Undergraduate students (N= 290) first reported serve as a buffer and increase lonely people’s moral identity, which their felt loneliness to the 20-item (e.g., “how often do you feel otherwise would be reduced by felt loneliness. completely alone”). Empathy was measured by using the empathic REFERENCES concern subscale of the Davis Empathy Scale (M. H. Davis, 1980). Aquino, K., & Reed, A. (2002). The self-importance of moral Participants also completed the 5-item Internalization subscale of the identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, Self-Importance of Moral Identity Scale (Aquino & Reed, 2002). As 1423-1440. predicted, the regression analysis revealed a significant influence of loneliness on moral identity (b = -.05, t = -7.22, p < .001), such that

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