November 2025 – New paper in Nature Scientific Reports: Contreras-Huerta on the motivational roots of moral hypocrisy

Dr. Luis Sebastián Contreras-Huerta and collaborators have published a new article in Scientific Reports (Nature). The study explores why people who harshly judge others for moral transgressions often fail to live up to their own moral standards.

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

11/7/20251 min read

The findings reveal that hypocritical blame—condemning others for actions one might also commit—is linked not to a lack of moral values, but to a reduced motivation to bear the personal costs of moral action, such as physical or mental effort. Individuals with higher hypocritical blame were less willing to help others and invested less effort when they did, highlighting a motivational gap between moral judgment and moral behavior.

This research provides new insight into the psychological and motivational processes underlying moral action, bridging moral psychology, decision-making, and neuroscience.

Read the full paper here

Author’s summary on X (Twitter): @lsebastian_ch – paper summary

Blog reviews by Julio Núñez (ESDLab):
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Image from Contreras-Huerta et al. (2025), Scientific Reports (CC BY 4.0).