Tee Yaps

People who view themselves as more moral, tend to behave less well. We see this exemplified in a study conducted by Northeastern University. Where researchers manipulated students self esteem.

Participants in the study were asked to write stories about themselves. one group was asked to stay neutral by using words like keys or house in their stories. Another group was told to use morally negative words like disloyal, mean, greedy. The third group was asked to use morally positive words when writing about themselves like caring, generous, fair and kind.

At the end of the study students were told research participants usually donate a small amount of money to a charity of their choice. And were invited to do so.

Results

The study found that participants who wrote about themselves in a neatral manner donated an average of $2.71. Participants that wrote about themselves using negative words donated on average, $5.30. And the morally positive group (the generous, kind and caring group) donated $1.07. They donated the least out of the three groups.

This is called Moral Licensing. Thinking morally well of yourself gives you an excuse to behave less well.

This is a relatively recent study conducted in 2009.

This study aligns with islamic wisdom. We see that prominent islamic scholars, when they are praised, they deflect it. They refused to accept it. Instead of being flattered, they are humbled. Instead of feeling proud, they are ashamed.

Here is a clip of Shaykh Bin Baaz reprimanding the student that introduced him for praising him. He does not accept the praise and explains that he is not any of the positive things that were attributed to him.

This is another clip of a student praising another prominent shiekh. He deflects the praise, and explains that if people view him positively it is because Allah has concealed his sins. And if they knew his sins they would not view him the same way.

Praise boosts ones self-esteem, but it does not do much else. And we see that it can have a negative effect as well. And islam teaches us to be critical of it.

Self-esteem is different from confidence but self esteem and confidence are very closely related. Confidence is good. Self-esteem can be bad.

Self-esteem is backwards looking. You look at your “accomplishments” and all the “good” you’ve done, and it makes you feel good about yourself.

Confidence is forward-looking. it is a prediction of you will perform. Not how you have performed (self-esteem). Confidence can grow your self-esteem but self-esteem does not necessarily grow your confidence.

To conclude

We see that viewing ourselves as positively moral can make us behave less morally. We also see how islam teaches us to be critical of accepting praise. And avoid the trap of thinking we are morally superior.

It is okay to be confident(I think). But be careful of having high self-esteem and thinking highly of yourself.

Side Note:

One thing I really like doing is taking timeless islamic wisdom, and relating it to modern research. We are more convinced of things when they are rEsEaRCh-bAsED or dAta-dRiVeN. So my hope with this is to illuminate the wisdom of the religion by providing research studies and evidence. Which, I hope, will strengthen my iman do the same for the reader as well.