dr. L.B. (Laetitia ) Mulder

Generally my research is about “The regulation of moral behavior”. In my research I study how people regulate their own (im)moral behavior themselves (moral compensatory versus consistency behavior) or how moral behavior can be regulated by authorities (by means of sanctions, rules and moral appeals), and by peers (by means of social confrontation). I also focus on moralization of health related behavior (overweight, vaccination, recreational drug use). Below more elaborate descriptions of my research projects can be found.   

Moralization

What happens if behavior becomes moralized? Can you convince peope to engage in behaviors by using of moral arguments, or does it raise resistance and evoke a backlash effect? I have been studying the impact of moral appeals and other types of moral messages in several (health-related) behavioral domains. So far, my research has shown positive effects of moral appeal in the domain of vaccination and recreational drug use. However, it has also shown that moralization of overweight can have adverse effects for those with relatively high weights, and that health programs that appeal to one’s own responsibility may inadvertedly foster stigmatization of people who are overweight.

Sanctions, rules and laws

How do you influence behavior by means of a mandate, law or sanction? Also, how, and under what conditions, do such policies shape (moral) norms? What works better: specifically or generally formulated rules? Sanctions have been shown to steer behavior, but also suffer from negative psychological effects such as reactance, decrease in trust, and the inducement of a calculative mindset. Still, rules and laws, as well as sanctions, do have a moral connotation as they show what behavior is morally disapproved of. In this sense, such policies may (help) shape moral norms in a positive way both in terms of personal norms and in terms of social norms (through social confrontation). Also, the way rules are framed in laws, contracts, covenants, and codes of conduct, affects their effectiveness. Specific rules are more clear behavioral guidelines, but allow for self-interested rationalization of unethical acts. A particular field in which this is tested is auditing, in which we make a comparison between principle-based standards and rules-based standards. All in all, this line of research focuses on the conditions that determine whether rules, laws and sanctions influences behaviour and foster moral norms.

Development of unethical behavior

How do people deal with their own unethical behavior? When they have lied or cheated, will they be inclined to continue with that?  Or do they feel guilty and try to compensate and behave more morally in future? And what determines whether or not someone continues to behave unethically? In other words: what makes people escalate in their immoral behavior? In this research I focus on the role of moral rationalizations, type of unethical behavior and personal dispositions.