Ethical Amnesia Explains Repeated Unethical Behaviors Like Cheating And Corruption

A new study revealed that humans are likelier to remember the great, charitable things they have done than to the unethical practices that they have committed. This implies the reason why cheaters keep on cheating, and probably why corrupt government officials have selective memory when being investigated.

According to the researchers, this "selective memory" could be humans' subconscious way of fooling themselves into thinking they are more ethical and moral than they really are.

The study's findings explained why people repeat unethical behavior. If they cannot remember (or uncomfortable to recall) having committed unethical things in the past, they are likelier to commit these again. Scientists aptly label this condition as "ethical amnesia." 

The lead researchers Maryam Kouchaki from Northwestern University and Francesca Gino from Harvard University explained whey they undertook the research. "We speculated... that people are limiting the retrieval of memories that threaten their moral self-concept, and that is the reason we see pervasive ordinary unethical behaviours,"  Kouchaki shared to Katherine Ellen Foley at Quartz.

Kouchaki claimed that unethical behavior are not merely forgotten. They are committed time and again. "After they behave unethically, individuals' memories of their actions become more obfuscated over time because of the psychological distress and discomfort caused by such misdeeds," write Kouchaki and Gino in their paper. "This unethical amnesia and the alleviation of such dissonance over time are followed by more dishonesty subsequently in the future."

If one is to apply these findings to the hot political scene right now, one can deduce that this is why Donald Trump is now saying he never committed the unethical behavior of calling Megyn Kelly a "bimbo" once. 

He told Kelly in their first interaction nine months after their exclusive interview held at the Trump Tower that he never retweet "nasty" comments being sent to Kelly, as being reported by NY Mag.

Kelly jogged his memory that he actually did, calling her a "bimbo." Trump then sheepishly said, "excuse" him.