Loyalty to friends is an important moral value, but does that mean snitching on friends is considered immoral? Across six preregistered studies, we examine how loyalty obligations impact people's moral evaluations of snitching (i.e., turning in others who commit transgressions). In vignette and incentivized partner choice paradigms, we find that witnesses who snitch (vs. do not snitch) are seen as more moral and as better leaders (Studies 1-6), regardless of whether they snitch on a friend or an acquaintance (Studies 1-3). We find that a willingness to turn in one's friends increases perceived morality, while an unwillingness to do so diminishes it, with the latter effect exhibiting a stronger impact than the former (Study 2). Our experiments also demonstrate that snitches receive less moral credit when snitching on nonmoral (vs. moral) transgressions (Study 3) and when snitching aligns with self-interest (Study 4). We demonstrate that although snitching is often seen as morally right, turning in transgressors entails important reputational trade-offs: Snitching makes one appear disloyal and a bad friend but boosts perceptions of morality and leadership. This reveals a context in which what is loyal is no longer considered moral. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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道德典范，但糟糕的朋友：告密案。

对朋友的忠诚是一项重要的道德价值观，但这是否意味着告密朋友就被认为是不道德的呢？在六项预先注册的研究中，我们研究了忠诚义务如何影响人们对举报（即举报其他违法行为）的道德评价。在小插曲和激励伙伴选择范式中，我们发现告密者（与不告密者相比）被视为更有道德和更好的领导者（研究 1-6），无论他们告密的是朋友还是熟人（研究1-3）。我们发现，愿意举报朋友会提高道德感，而不愿意举报则会削弱道德感，后者的影响比前者更强（研究 2）。我们的实验还表明，当举报非道德（相对于道德）违规行为时（研究 3）以及当举报与自身利益一致时（研究 4），举报人获得的道德信用会较低。我们证明，虽然举报通常被认为在道德上是正确的，但举报违规者需要重要的声誉权衡：举报会让一个人显得不忠诚和一个坏朋友，但会增强人们对道德和领导力的看法。这揭示了一种忠诚不再被视为道德的背景。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。