The surprising link between your memory and your moral compass

How good is your memory?

Your answer to that relates to something that might surprise you: your likelihood to behave “virtuously,” whether forgoing that second serving of potato chips or donating to charity.

Consider an example: Imagine you’ve just loaded your groceries into the car and you realize you forgot to buy something critical, like milk. So you run back into the store to get it. Then, when leaving, you see a Salvation Army rep has just set up outside the exit and is ringing their bell for donations.

Our research suggest you’re less likely to throw a few coins into the bucket, not because you’re late, but because you think you’re forgetful or have a poor memory in that moment. When you believe you’re forgetful, then you believe you’re more likely to forget that virtuous action as well, and so you’re less inclined to do it. Indeed, if who we are is what we remember about ourselves, then we are not what we forget.

These findings have implications that go well beyond the individual. As we’ll discuss, the link between memory and morality can influence how marketers craft their strategies and nonprofits design their websites. In short, organizations can orient their products, causes, and messages with intent to boost or undermine our confidence in our memories, in order to further their own purposes.

Across five studies with various types of choices, methods, and populations, we found that when people are less confident in their own memory, they’re less likely to behave virtuously because their actions seem less consequential for their self-concept, or how they view themselves. (In this context we define virtuous behavior as that which aligns with standards like ideals, values, morals, and social expectations.)

Our prior research shows that people already tend to forget the details of things they may feel guilt or shame over. So we wanted to see how our confidence in our memory influences our tendency toward specific kinds of behavior.

Indeed, the link between our memory-related perception and our moral behavior is more critical than ever. There’s recent evidence that our increasing reliance on technology—whether search engines or GPS systems—negatively impacts our memory and our confidence in our recall ability. We are more likely to think we would forget things now than ever before, and this could impact our moral behavior in subtle ways most of us probably wouldn’t realize.

Memory and Morality

Our confidence in our memory—or what we call memory “efficacy” in the research world—is about our general belief that we will be able to remember in the future the things we’re doing or experiencing in the present. Put more simply, it’s whether we think we have an overall “good” or “bad” memory, regardless of our actual capability in this area.

As researchers with interest in psychology and behavior, we hypothesized that when people feel less confident in their memory in the moment—whether it’s because of reliance on tech or another contributor—they’ll be less likely to behave virtuously because their actions seem less consequential for how they think about themselves. That is, a virtuous (or less virtuous) action seems less self-diagnostic if people think they won’t remember it. And, as our prior work shows, when people don’t consider their actions to be self-diagnostic, they are more likely to indulge, splurge, and behave selfishly.

 

We tested our hypothesis through multiple studies. Using two different experimental manipulations of memory efficacy, our first two studies examined its effect on virtuous behavior in the form of charitable giving and volunteering. Then we turned to the context of food choices, first showing that memory efficacy affects our perceptions of how self-diagnostic our actions are; subsequently we demonstrated that self-diagnosticity has an impact on virtuous behavior. That is, people made more indulgent food choices when they had low confidence in their memory because they thought their behaviors were less representative of who they are.

Collectively, our results showed a strong link between memory efficacy and our tendency toward virtuous behavior (low efficacy means less virtuous behavior), as facilitated by how much we think our actions represent us.

What it means for you

What we found has implications for individuals and organizations.

Importantly, individuals should be mindful of the importance of memory efficacy and the memory-morality link. Since your perception of your memory can summon or suppress your better angels, try to avoid a blanket belief in poor memory—indeed, following this advice may even improve your overall memory functioning, as part of a self-fulfilling prophecy, or prevent you from giving up on the prospect of having a strong memory. At the very least, pay particular attention to your choices and decisions at times when you feel a tad forgetful.

On the organizational side, our work may suggest counterintuitive strategies for some marketers. Those who promote products and services may believe, logically, that highlighting the memorability of their offerings will attract consumers more than less memorable contexts. But our results suggest that when trying to stimulate indulgent consumption (junk food, gambling, and the like), it might be best to hint at that idea that “you won’t remember this”—and, as such, it doesn’t reflect who you are.

Indeed, the well-known slogan “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” might free visitors to let go of their inhibitions, not only by suggesting no one will find out but also by signaling that they themselves won’t remember any questionable behavior in that popular destination. More subtly, positioning something like a not-good-for-you snack as “part of your daily routine” may nudge people toward lower memorability, stimulating purchase—something consumers should beware of.

For charitable organizations, policymakers, or anyone seeking to promote prosocial behavior, the opposite applies. Here, the goal for leaders would be to heighten the seeming memorability of an action or purchase: “You’ll remember making this gift because it will mean so much to the world.” Even ensuring that website designs, ads, or other communications stand out in a meaningful—and thus memorable—way (such as through vivid colors, images, or text) can serve this purpose. Remember, it’s about increasing the audience’s confidence in their memory through these means, not necessarily the actual memorability.

Maryam Kouchaki is a professor of management and organizations at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.. Rima Touré-Tillery is an associate professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.