Why Hypocrisy is so

prevalent?
Psychology Project

CS Section C
Table of Contents
Field: …………………………………………2
Introduction:.......................................................2
Problem Statement:............................................2
Overview:...........................................................3
Research Question:............................................4
Hypothesis:........................................................5
Objectives and Aims:.........................................5
Significance:......................................................6
Refrences: …………………………………..7
Field:
Hypocrisy

Introduction:
Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which
one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs
to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the
failure to follow one's own expressed moral rules and principles.
According to British political philosopher David Runciman,
"Other kinds of hypocritical deception include claims to knowledge that one lacks,
claims to a consistency that one cannot sustain, claims to a loyalty that one does
not possess, claims to an identity that one does not hold".
American political journalist Michael Gerson says that political hypocrisy is,
"the conscious use of a mask to fool the public and gain political benefit".
Another quote by George MacDonald:
“Half of this misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be,
what one is not.”
Now you are aware of what is actually hypocrisy that one pretends or acts the way
to please others but reality is different from that. Once we are more concerned with
our reputation than our character, there is no and to the things we will do to make
ourselves look good.
Problem Statement:
Why people hate hypocrites?
We dislike hypocrites as their denial of bad behavior sends false signals,
misleading us to think they are virtuous even though they are not.
The research shows that people dislike hypocrites more than those who openly
admit to engaging in a behavior that they disapprove of.
"People dislike hypocrites because they unfairly use condemnation to gain
reputational benefits and appear virtuous at the expense of those who they are
condemning - when these reputational benefits are in fact undeserved," said Jillian
Jordan from Yale University in the US.
In an online study with 619 participants, researchers presented each participant
with four scenarios about characters engaging in possible moral transgressions: a
member of a track team using performance-enhancing drugs, a student cheating on
a take-home chemistry exam, an employee failing to meet a deadline on a team
project and a member of a hiking club who engaged in infidelity.
In each scenario, participants read about a conversation involving moral
condemnation of a transgression.
The researchers varied whether the condemnation came from a "target character"
(who subjects would later evaluate) or somebody else, as well as whether the
scenario provided direct information about the target character's own moral
behavior.
Participants then evaluated how trustworthy and likable the target character was, as
well as the likelihood that the target character would engage in the transgression.
The results showed that participants viewed the target more positively when he or
she condemned the bad behavior in the scenario, but only when they had no
information about how the character actually behaved.

Overview:
When hypocrites come to you, they say: "We admitted that you truly are the
Messenger of Allah." And Allah knows that truly you are His Messenger; and
Allah knows that the hypocrites are really liars. They make their vow as a shield
then they block humans from the path of Allah. Surely it is very bad what they
have done.
One reason hypocrisy is perceived negatively may be that it involves inconsistency
between words and deeds, which people tend to dislike (Tedeschi, Schlenker, &
Bonoma, 1971). Another possibility is that hypocrites may be seen as unable to
resist the temptation to transgress—another negative quality (Righetti &
Finkenauer, 2011). Furthermore, hypocrites may be seen as more intentionally
immoral than people who behave badly without condemning such behavior
(Cushman, Young, & Hauser, 2006): Their condemnation demonstrates that they
understand the wrongfulness of their actions.

Research Question:
Part of the reason why hypocrisy is so prevalent, I think, is that there is a
difference between concepts that are easily expressible vs. what we actually think
about a subject. That can lead to perceived hypocritical actions.
For example, there are an enormous number of Christians who support the War on
Terror, which involves killing quite a number of people. We might recall that one
of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not kill.” This seems like an enormous
contradiction, and if taken at face value it absolutely is. I think most people,
though, would say that they think this injunction applies only to unjust killings
(and there’s a fair amount of Biblical scholarship to support that view). In their
own minds, these folks might quite happily line up the War on Terror with
“justified” killing, and therefore mark it off as a non-issue.
To take a more close-to-home example, most people seem to think that lying is a
generally bad thing. Most people also lie a lot. What are we to make of this? Well,
I think that if pressed, most people would give some variation on the answer that
they really only think lying is bad if it is done with malicious intent. By that rubric,
lying is bad if the question is, “Is this your baby, for whom you have not been
paying child support?” while lying isn’t inherently bad if the question is, “Do these
jeans make me look fat?” Or at least that seems to be the common consensus.
What both of these example’s reveal is that there’s complex moral calculus going
on under the hood in many cases of hypocrisy. People repeat one apparently simple
set of moral instructions, but actually follow a more complicated rubric.
There’s also a time factor at play. People change. It’s really that simple. If you ask
someone for their opinion in year 1, and come back to them in year 5, there’s a
pretty good chance that they will have changed their mind about something. They
just might not have told you about that in the intervening period. So, a lot of cases
of perceived hypocrisy really just boil down to a lack of communication, coupled
with intellectual drift.
And finally, of course, all of us have moral failings. Taking the moral path usually
means personal sacrifice at some point, and at some point, each one of us will
refuse that sacrifice, particularly when we feel threatened. And then we’ll be
hypocrites. This is an outcome to be avoided, but sooner or later we all fall. The
trick is to get back up again.
Self-interest is the most obvious reason for any of us to act like hypocrites. When
people are questioned about why they act in conflict with their own stated moral
standards, many will say that the personal costs are enough to outweigh the
intention to act morally.

Hypothesis:
We all think we have to be something else, portray something different than who
we really are, so that people will love us and accept us and make us significant.
We all hate hypocrisy. We hate it when we see it in other people, we despise it
when we see it in the Church, and we actually hate it when we see it in us.
Now, it would be nice if hypocrisy was like a virus or like bacteria, and you could
go to the doctor and say, “I have a bad case of hypocrisy,” and he could write a
prescription and say, “Here you go. Take care of it. Three pills, like penicillin,
you’re done.”
But hypocrisy is a lot more complex than that. It has to do with your heart and your
mind and your attitudes and your relationship with God and your relationship with
people.

Objectives and Aims:

By Observing how we can overcome of being hypocrite or understand one’s
hypocritic behavior.
Might sound silly, but try being around young children. They demand when they
want, they cry when they're unhappy, they laugh out loud when they're happy, they
sulk, they fight, they kiss and make up, all old fights forgotten, they
draw/dance/sing/scream/etc. when they feel like, wherever they feel like, they
reject something they don't like the taste of/look of, they have no shame in feeling
what they feel, and do it with Complete innocence and no self-Consciousness
Of course. You're a grown up. And some of those actions and feelings you have
learnt to deal with differently, you've learned to hide it well, and you did so
because of the feedback you got from the environment.
You learned what was acceptable and what was not. You learnt mannerisms, tact,
diplomacy and sophistication. You learnt how to express yourself in other
unobvious ways. You learnt patience and to wait for gratification.
All those things that made you learn Hypocrisy are still going to be there as you
unlearn it. Which are: the need for self-protection, other people's feelings and
opinions, self-consciousness, acceptance by your peer group and any other reason
which makes us not live as we feel.
Can we call Hypocrisy a social survival technique? An adopted way to blend in
seamlessly? An obvious response to threatening stimuli. We’ve been 'socialized'
tamed and taught obedience in spite of our reluctance.

Significance:
Essentially, a hypocrite is a wicked person masquerading as a good person, a wolf
in sheep’s clothing. The best hypocrites look good, very good. So good that you
wouldn’t know they are a hypocrite. So, all the shallow tactics of not listening or
dealing with them won’t work until they have shafted you good, but by them you’d
have paid a heavy price.
The scariest places to find hypocrites are your hero, your mentor, your parent, your
teacher, your big brother, your king, your pop star, your favorite political dissident,
your NGO hero, your saint, your religious leader. Or someone who followed you
on Quora and sang your praises like a bird on a tree, writing all sorts of sappy, ass
kissing comments under many of your answers, comment after comment of
saccharine praises, then took and took from you, many hours of your time, asking
questions which you helpfully answered, then suddenly turned on you and hated
you like you murdered their parents, all for no reason. Such wickedness exists
because to have seen or experienced something is to have proven to yourself that it
can exist. Such a follower was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Following some non-
existent reason, she hated me for life and proceeded to unpivoted every single
answer she upvoted and delete every single saccharine praise comment she ever
wrote under my answers. Since that was A LOT of upvotes and A LOT of sickly-
sweet comments, she must have used many hours of her life just to exact her
puzzling vengeance on me. She was always insane and wicked to the max, but she
hid it under her self-righteousness. Read her answers and you wouldn’t be able to
see that she always hid so much hatred underneath, ready to unleash on some
random stranger who happened to show her too much kindness.
She seemed intent on destroying and deleting everything good she ever did. The
insane do puzzling things to do with destruction.
Like I said earlier, the very best hypocrites are so vile that you often cannot know
that they were always a wolf under sheep’s clothing until after they’ve got you
good. It is very hard to fend off against such excellent actresses. They have the
power of the devil himself when it comes to deceit.
A true hypocrite destroys others soul from 10,000km away. Finding out that the
popstar you worshipped is a pedophile destroys your faith in humanity. So how do
you deal with that?
Essentially you grow up and wake up to the wickedness of the world.
Very few people who look like they are good people in this world are good.
Especially if they are a celebrity. I hear they are thinking of taking away Aung San
Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace Prize in light of her recent human rights abuses. What a
disappointment she’s turned out to be for her barrackers. How do you deal with
that if she happened to be someone you worshipped for being a symbol of hope for
humanity?
I don’t think there is any real alternative to growing up and waking up to the reality
of human wickedness. Very few people who appear good are actually good. That’s
why you don’t automatically trust someone who seems good to be good.
Ultimately, humans are actually made of shit inside, that’s why we look to God
and not to humanity. That’s why I kick up a stink every time I read anyone write
that humanity is awesome.
Be wary of all humanists, those who call themselves humanists and talk about
unconditional love are backstabbers and secretly murderers in their secret hearts.
Humanity is naturally hypocritical. Most people are wicked. Most people try very
hard to hide their wickedness from everyone. So that they appear either good or ok
to everyone. That makes most people some degree of wolf in sheep’s clothing. But
the ones who try hardest to appear good tend to be the greatest wolves.

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