Moral Paragons, but Crummy Friends: The Case of Snitching

Loyalty to friends is an important moral value, but does that mean snitching on friends is immoral? Across four pre-registered studies, we examine how loyalty obligations impact people’s moral evaluations of snitching (i.e., turning in others who commit transgressions to relevant authorities). In vignette and incentivized partner choice studies, we find that witnesses who snitch (vs. do not snitch) are seen as more moral and as better leaders (Studies 1–4), regardless of whether they snitch on a friend or an acquaintance (Studies 1–2). Our experiments also demonstrate that snitches receive less moral credit when snitching on non-moral (vs. moral) transgressions (Study 2), and when snitching aligns with a self-interested motive (Study 3). We demonstrate that although snitching is often seen as morally right, turning in transgressors entails important reputational tradeoffs: Snitching makes one appear disloyal and a bad potential friend, but boosts perceptions of morality and leadership potential.