Selfish people misremember their actions and think they were more generous than they actually were

New research published in Nature Communications indicates that selfish people tend to recall being more generous than they actually were. The findings suggest that memory plays a role in warding off threats to people’s moral self-image.“Most people firmly believe that they are moral beings, and what’s fascinated many psychologists is that this belief is held even by those of us who tend not to be very moral,” explained study author Ryan Carlson, a PhD student at Yale University.“A common explanation for this is that these people ‘rationalize’ away their immoral actions, for instance, by shirki...