Hypocritical blame is associated with reduced prosocial motivation

People often act hypocritically. One form of hypocrisy occurs when people blame others for transgressing moral principles – such as profiting from harming others – that they themselves have violated in the past. However, the psychological processes associated with this hypocritical blame are largely unknown. One possibility is that hypocritical blame is related to the costs of being prosocial, such that a person could have the intention to help but might not be willing to put in the effort. Here, we test whether a measure of hypocritical blame that quantifies the discrepancy between how willing people are to profit from another’s harm, and how much they blame somebody else for similarly profiting, is associated with a task measuring how willing someone is to choose and then exert physical effort to benefit themselves or an anonymous other. Results revealed that hypocritical blame is associated with reduced prosocial motivation specifically, and not with how willing people are to exert effort for their own benefit. This effect was found in both a reduced willingness to choose to be prosocial and for energising prosocial acts. This suggests that the discrepancy between moral standards and actions is related to the willingness to overcome the costs of being prosocial, with some people being simply unwilling to exert the effort required to live up to their moral principles.