When a favorite athlete, celebrity or politician does something wrong, fans often use a strategy called moral decoupling to justify their continued support. (click below to read more)
In six tests, people read texts about wrongdoing by public figures and then were asked questions related to how they might explain still supporting that person. The tests showed how the popular decoupling strategy disassociates top performance from morality. That way, the researchers write, "one can support an immoral actor without being subject to self-reproach." The strategy gets harder when the wrongdoing is directly responsible for the celebrity's success.
"Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: How Moral Decoupling Enables Consumers to Admire and Admonish," Amit Bhattacharjee, Jonathan Z. Berman and Americus Reed II, Journal of Consumer Research
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