Essays on moral disengagement and contributions to public goods in South Africa

Abstract

Moral disengagement is a set of cognitive strategies people use to justify or rationalize choices that might otherwise conflict with their moral self-image. Framed within a public-goods context, this dissertation examines how moral disengagement, together with reactance and disgust sensitivity relates to two socially consequential choices in South Africa: vaccination and charitable donations, and how tax incentives shape the latter. Three studies address these questions. First, using a national online survey of adults (n=1,006), we estimate associations between the three psychological constructs and both vaccine hesitancy and adoption. Higher moral disengagement is associated with greater hesitancy; reactance and disgust show similar positive associations. In contrast, in models of realized uptake, moral disengagement is not a significant predictor, while disgust sensitivity is associated with a 20 percentage-point lower probability of taking the primary COVID-19 vaccine and around a 15 percentage-point lower probability of taking a booster (variables scaled 0–1; effects reported as average marginal effects). Second, a separate survey (n=1,039) links moral disengagement to charitable giving. Moral disengagement is higher, on average, among men, younger respondents, and those with lower education or employment; it predicts less frequent self-reported giving but does not significantly explain behavior in a one-shot incentivized donation task, consistent with situational importance in small stakes choices. Third, administrative tax data (2011–2021) show clear bunching at the 10% donations-deduction cap, implying local responsiveness to the effective price/salience of giving; responsiveness varies by group (stronger among females, working-age adults, and the less wealthy). Across chapters, estimates are associational (survey studies) or local to the policy kink (bunching). Taken together, the findings highlight identity-preserving reframing (moral disengagement), autonomy costs (reactance), affective costs (disgust), and price/salience as complementary channels for understanding vaccination and philanthropic behavior in South Africa