Explaining Happy Victimizing in adulthood A cognitive and economic approach

Main Article Content

Gerhard Minnameier

Abstract

While acknowledging the phenomenon of “happy victimizing” (HV), the classical explanation is questioned and challenged. HV is typically explained by a lack of moral motivation (MM) that is thought to develop in late childhood and adolescence. Apart from empirical evidence for widespread HV in adulthood, there are also strong theoretical arguments against the classical explanation. Firstly, there are arguments against the coherence of the very concept of MM. Secondly, while the classical explanation focuses on internal drivers (in the sense of MM), the one proposed in the present paper focuses on the patterns of interaction. Accordingly, HV may depend less on internalised values and individual motivation (whether in terms of moral internalism or moral externalism), and more on the “rules of the game” that are established in social interaction (or not). On this account, HV appears where higher order moral rules are not established and cannot be established, either due the circumstances or due to the unwillingness (or incapability) to play by the rules of these higher order games (where “games” are to be understood in the game-theoretic sense).  The ordinary one-shot prisoners’ dilemma is a case in point. It precludes promise-giving as well as other higher order moral regimes, but instead forces the agents into a conflict of interest, where everyone has to mind their own business. Moreover, claiming that all players have to pursue their own self-interest, can be understood as moral rule of its own.

Article Details

How to Cite
Minnameier, G. (2020). Explaining Happy Victimizing in adulthood: A cognitive and economic approach. Frontline Learning Research, 8(5), 70–91. https://doi.org/10.14786/flr.v8i5.381
Section
Articles

References

Ameriks, K. (2006). Kant and motivational externalism. In H. F. Klemme, M Kühn & D. Schönecker (Eds.), Moralische Motivation: Kant und die Alternativen (pp. 3-22), Hamburg: Meiner.

Andreoni J., & Bernheim, D. B. (2009). Social image and the 50–50 norm: A theoretical and experimental analysis of audience effects. Econometrica, 77, 1607–1636. https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA7384

Ariely, D. (2012). The (honest) truth about dishonesty: How we lie to everyone – especially ourselves. New York: Harper Collins.

Arsenio, W. F., Gold, J., & Adams, E. (2006). Children’s conceptions and displays of moral emotion. In: M. Killen/J. G. Smetana (Eds.). Handbook of moral development (pp. 581-609). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Batson, C. D., Thomson, E. R., & Chen, H. (2002). Moral hypocrisy: Addressing some alternatives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 330-339. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.2.330

Batson, C. D., Thomson, E. R., Seuferling, G., Whitney, H, & Strongman, J. A. (1999). Moral hypocrisy: Appearing moral to oneself without being so. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 525-537. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.3.525

Becker, G. S. (1976). The economic approach to human behavior. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Becker, G. S. (1993). Nobel lecture: The economic way of looking at behavior. Journal of Political Economy, 101, 385–409.

Bergman, R. (2002). Why be moral? A conceptual model from developmental psychology. Human Development, 45, 104-124.

Bergman, R. (2004). Identity as motivation: Toward a theory of the moral self. In D. K. Lapsley & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Moral development, self, and identity (pp. 21-46), Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bicchieri, C. (2006). The grammar of society: The nature and dynamics of social norms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Binmore, K. (2009). Rational decisions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Binmore, K. (2010). Game theory and institutions. Journal of Comparative Economics, 38, 245-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2010.07.003

Blasi, A. (1984). Moral identity: Its role in moral functioning. In W. M. Kurtinez & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Morality, moral behavior, and moral development (pp. 128-139). New York: Wiley.

Blasi, A. (1995). Moral understanding and the moral personality: The process of moral integration. In W. M. Kurtinez & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Moral development: An introduction (pp. 229-253). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Brickhouse, T. C., & Smith, N. D. (2010). Socratic moral psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brink, D. O. (1997). Moral motivation. Ethics, 108, 4-32.

Carter, J. R., & Irons, M. (1991). Are economists different, and if so, why? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5(2), 171–177.

Colby, A., & Kohlberg, L. (1987). The measurement of moral judgment, Vol. I: Theoretical foundations and research validation. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Dana, J., Weber, R. A., & Kuang, J. X. (2007). Exploiting moral wiggle room: Experiments demonstrating an illusory preference for fairness. Economic Theory, 33, 67–80. doi: 10.1007/s00199-006-0153-z

Dietrich, F., & List, D. (2013a). A reason-based theory of rational choice. Noûs, 47, 104-134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2011.00840.x

Dietrich, F., & List, D. (2013b). Where do preferences come from? International Journal of Game Theory, 42, 613–637. doi: 10.1007/s00182-012-0333-y

Foot, P. (1972). Morality as a system of hypothetical imperatives. Philosophical Review, 81, 305-316. doi: 10.2307/2184328

Frank, R. H., Gilovich, T., & Regan, D. T. (1993). Does studying economics inhibit cooperation? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7(2), 159-171.

Frank, R. H., Gilovich, T., & Regan, D. T. (1996). Do economists make bad citizens? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10(1), 187-192. doi: 10.1257/jep.10.1.187

Frey, B. S. (1986). Economists favour the price system. Who else does? Kyklos, 39(4), 537–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.1986.tb00677.x

Frey, B. S., & Meier, S. (2003). Are political economists selfish and indoctrinated? Evidence from a natural experiment. Economic Inquiry, 41, 448-462. https://doi.org/10.1093/ei/cbg020

Gul, F., & Pesendorfer, W. (2008). The case for mindless economics. In A. Caplin & A. Schotter (Eds.), The foundations of positive and normative economics: A handbook (pp. 3-39). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heinrichs, K., Minnameier, G., Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, E., & Latzko, B. (2015). „Don’t worry, be happy“? – Das Happy-Victimizer-Phänomen im berufs- und wirtschaftspädagogischen Kontext. Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 111, 31-55.

Hermkes, R. (2016). Perception, abduction, and tacit inference. In L. Magnani & C. Casadio (Eds.), Model-based reasoning in science and technology – Logical, epistemological, and cognitive issues (pp. 399-418). Heidelberg: Springer.

Hobbes, T. (1651/2001). Leviathan. South Bend, IN: Infomotions.

Kant, I. (2002/1785). Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals (ed. and transl. by A. W. Wood). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Keller, M., Lourenço, O., Malti, T., & Saalbach, H. (2003). The multifaceted phenomenon of „happy victimizers“: A cross-cultural comparison of moral emotions, British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21, 1-18. doi: 10.1348/026151003321164582

Killen, M., & Smetana, J. G. (2015). Origins and development of morality. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science, Vol. 3 (7th ed.; pp. 701-749). NY: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118963418.childpsy317

Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development, Vol. 2: The psychology of moral development. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.

Krebs, D. L., & Denton, K. (2005). Toward a more pragmatic approach to morality: A critical evaluation of Kohlberg’s model, Psychological Review, 112, 629-649. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.112.3.629

Krettenauer, T. (2013). Moral motivation, responsibility and the development of the moral self. In F. Oser, K. Heinrichs & T. Lovat (Eds.), Handbook of moral motivation: Theories, models, applications. (pp. 215-228). Rotterdam: Sense.

Krettenauer, T., Malti, T., & Sokol, B. W. (2008). The development of moral emotion expectancies and the happy victimizer phenomenon: A critical review of theory and application, European Journal of Developmental Science, 2, 221-235. doi: 10.3233/DEV-2008-2303

Ledyard, J. (1995). Public goods: A survey of experimental research. In J. Kagel & A. Roth (Eds.), Handbook of experimental economics (pp. 253–279). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Malti, T., & Krettenauer, T. (2013). The relation of moral emotion attributions to prosocial and antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 84, 397-412. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01851.x

Marwell, G., & Ames, R. (1981). Economists free ride, does anyone else? Journal of Public Economics, 15(3), 295–310.

Minnameier, G. (2000). Strukturgenese moralischen Denkens - Eine Rekonstruktion der Piagetschen Entwicklungslogik und ihre moraltheoretischen Folgen. Münster: Waxmann.

Minnameier, G. (2001). A new stairway to moral heaven – A systematic reconstruction of stages of moral thinking based on a Piagetian 'logic' of cognitive development. Journal of Moral Education, 30, 317-337. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240120094823

Minnameier, G. (2005). Developmental progress in Ancient Greek ethics. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2, 71-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405620444000274a

Minnameier, G. (2010). The problem of moral motivation and the Happy Victimizer Phenomenon – Killing two birds with one stone. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 129, 55-75. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.275

Minnameier, G. (2012). A cognitive approach to the ‘happy victimiser’. Journal of Moral Education, 41, 491-508. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2012.700893

Minnameier, G. (2013). Deontic and responsibility judgments: An inferential analysis. In F. Oser, K. Heinrichs & T. Lovat (Eds.), Handbook of moral motivation: Theories, models, applications. (pp. 69-82). Rotterdam: Sense.

Minnameier, G. (2014). Moral aspects of professions and professional practice. In S. Billet, C. Harteis & H. Gruber (Eds.), International handbook of research in professional and practice-based learning (pp. 57-77). Berlin: Springer.

Minnameier, G. (2016a). Rationalität und Moralität – Zum systematischen Ort der Moral im Kontext von Präferenzen und Restriktionen. Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmens-ethik, 17, 259-285.

Minnameier, G. (2016b). Abduction, selection, and selective abduction. In L. Magnani & C. Casadio (Eds.), Model-based reasoning in science and technology – Logical, epistemological, and cognitive issues (pp. 309-318). Heidelberg: Springer.

Minnameier, G. (2017). Forms of abduction and an inferential taxonomy. In L. Magnani & T. Bertolotti (Eds.), Springer Handbook of Model-Based Reasoning (pp. 175-195). Berlin: Springer.

Minnameier, G. (2018). Reconciling morality and rationality – Positive learning in the moral domain. In O. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, G. Wittum & A. Dengel (Eds.), Positive learning in the age of information (PLATO) - A blessing or a curse? (pp. 347-361). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Minnameier, G., & Schmidt, S. (2013). Situational moral adjustment and the happy victimizer. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10, 253-268. doi: 10.1080/17405629.2013.765797

Minnameier, G., Beck, K., Heinrichs, K., & Parche-Kawik, K. (1999). Homogeneity of moral judgement? Apprentices solving business conflicts. Journal of Moral Education, 28, 429-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/030572499102990

Minnameier, G., Heinrichs, K., & Kirschbaum, F. (2016). Sozialkompetenz als Moralkompetenz – Theoretische und empirische Analysen. Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 112, 636-666.

Nucci, L. (2008). Social cognitive domain theory and moral education. In L. Nucci, & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Handbook of moral development and character education (pp. 291–309). Oxford: Routledge.

Nunner-Winkler, G. (1999). Development of moral understanding and moral motivation. In F. E. Weinert & W. Schneider (Eds.), Individual development from 3 to 12 (pp. 253–292). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Nunner-Winkler, G. (2007). Development of moral motivation from childhood to early adulthood. Journal of Moral Education, 36, 399-414. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240701687970

Nunner-Winkler, G. (2013). Moral motivation and the happy victimizer phenomenon. In F. Oser, K. Heinrichs & T. Lovat (Eds.), Handbook of moral motivation: Theories, models, applications. (pp. 267-288). Rotterdam: Sense.

Nunner-Winkler, G., & Sodian, B. (1988). Children’s understanding of moral emotions, Child Development, 59, 1323-1338. doi: 10.2307/1130495

Paulus, M. (2014). The emergence of prosocial behavior: Why do infants and toddlers help, comfort, and share? Child Development Perspectives, 8, 77-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12066

Paulus, M., & Moore, C. (2014). The development of recipient-dependent sharing behaviour and sharing expectations in preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 50, 914-921. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034169

Piaget, J., & Garcia, R. (1989). Psychogenesis and the history of science. New York: Columbia University Press.

Rai, T. S., & Fiske, A. P. (2011). Moral psychology is relationship regulation: Moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological Review, 118, 57-75. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021867

Rest, J. R. (1984). The major components of morality. In W. M. Kurtinez & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Morality, moral behavior, and moral development (pp. 24-38). New York: Wiley.

Rosati, C. S. (2016). Moral motivation. In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/moral-motivation/>.

Rubinstein, A. (2006). A sceptic’s comment on the study of economics. Economic Journal, 116, C1-C9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2006.01071.x

Rustichini, A., & Villeval, M. C. (2014). Moral hypocrisy, power, and social preferences. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 107, 10-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.08.002

Samuelson, P. A. (1938). A note on the pure theory of consumer’s behaviour. Economica, 5, 61–71. doi: 10.2307/2548836

Samuelson, P. A. (1948). Consumption theory in terms of revealed preference. Economica, 15, 243–253. 10.2307/2549561

Selten, R., & Ockenfels, A. (1998). An experimental solidarity game. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 34 (4), 517-539. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-2681(97)00107-8

Smith, M. (1994/2005). The moral problem. Oxford: Blackwell.

Sugden, R. (2010). Is there a distinction between morality and convention? In M. Baurmann, G. Brennan, R. E. Goodin & N. Southwood (Eds.), Norms and values: The role of social norms as instruments of value realization (pp. 47-65). Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Thoma, S. J., & Bebeau, M. J. (2013). Moral motivation and the four component model. In F. Oser, K. Heinrichs & T. Lovat (Eds.), Handbook of moral motivation: Theories, models, applications. (pp. 49-68). Rotterdam: Sense.

Turiel, E. (1983). The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Turiel, E. (2002). The culture of morality: Social development, context, and conflict. New York: Cambridge Universtiy Press.

Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2009). The roots of human altruism. British Journal of Psychology, 100, 455–471. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712608X379061

Zangwill, N. (2003). Externalist moral motivation. American Philosophical Quarterly, 40, 143-154.