You're One to Talk: A Podcast About Hypocrisy
Episode 4: An Aristotelian list of Roman vices and virtues
Episode 3: Aristotle's list of vices and virtues
Episode 2: The tribute that vice pays to virtue
Episode 1: The formula for hypocrisy
di Gary Bryan
Hypocrisy is all about claiming to have virtues we don’t have. And the Romans were really into virtue. Our journey to explore hypocrisy takes us back to Ancient Rome, a civilization whose values shaped how we perceive virtue (and even gave us the word “virtue” itself). So, how these virtues influence our perceptions of hypocrisy? This list will detail the most well-known Roman virtues, and their respective vices of excess and deficiency, as per Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean. Between Aristotle and the Romans, we should now know enough virtues to understand how virtue works, and by extension, how hypocrisy works. Oh and… yes, it’s been a while. I’m back from the dead. From now on, I will be releasing these episodes monthly (a more realistic schedule). Thank you for your patience and for continuing to show curiosity about what hypocrisy is, how it works, and what we can (or should) do about it. Tune in next time where we’ll be exploring a human behavior closely associated with hypocrisy, and which you’ve probably accused others of doing, or been accused of yourself: virtue signaling.
To properly spot and judge a hypocrite, we must first spot the virtue they claim to have, and the vice (the bad behavior) they actually have. And nobody crafted lists of vices and virtues quite like Aristotle. In this episode, we explore this Aristotelian list of vices and virtues, from the "father of virtue ethics" himself, to see how they contradictorily clash to create what we would call: a hypocrite. The virtues and vices from this list, taken from Aristotle's work "Nicomachean Ethics," include his list of intellectual virtues, and his (more relevant to hypocrisy) list of moral virtues. And while these vices and virtues might be ancient (4th century BCE, to be precise), they're still clearly observable in examples of hypocrisy today. Some vices and virtues change with time, but some are simply timeless. Here's the list: Intellectual virtues: Scientific knowledge Technical skill Practical wisdom Comprehension Moral virtues: Courage Temperance Liberality Magnificence (aka extravagance) Magnanimity Ambition Gentleness Truthfulness Wittiness Friendliness Modesty Righteous indignation So, which one of Aristotle's vices and virtues have you noticed recently when spotting a hypocrite? Thank you all so much for listening! Hope you'll join the next episode, where we'll list the Roman virtues, and explain how hypocrites pretend to embody these virtues, while actually behaving viciously.
This episode introduces virtue: the thing that a hypocrite claims to have, but unfortunately doesn't. Together with its arch-nemesis, vice, virtue has always been an important quality for human beings to know and understand. No discussion about hypocrisy can begin without first defining virtue. Since their origins as the exemplary behaviors needed to follow or avoid in order to kickstart civilization, to their necessary evolution from ancient history until how we know them today, vice and virtue have always been the two most crucial factors in the making of a hypocrite. So why do we have virtue? Why is it valuable? Why is virtue good and vice bad? And how does our pursuit of virtue set us up perfectly to judge (and sometimes become) hypocrites? We'll be answering that and a few other crucial questions, with a little help from Ancient Greek classics like Homer, Protagoras, Socrates and Aristotle. Also French Classical era author François de La Rochefoucauld, who penned the clever yet relevant quote that serves as basis for this episode's title.
How do we put a number on hypocrisy? In this episode, we'll Frankenstein a formula for hypocrisy, to help us dissect what factors make hypocrisy (or as I call them, the spinning gears and pulled levers in the Willy Wonka hypocrisy machine). Listen to find out how to rate a hypocrite. Here is the formula: Hypocrisy (H) is the observed difference between someone’s claimed beliefs (CB) minus their perceived behavior (PB), with an intent (I) to gain something from that claim, as perceived by a given audience (A) divided by their gained success (G) times 9 H = ((CB - PB) × I × A) / (G × 9) (The “x 9” is added as a scaling factor to yield 1-100 results) Here are some examples of the formula being put to use: Barely a hypocrite: Claimed Belief (CB): 6 Perceived Behavior (PB): 4 → Gap = 2 Intent to Gain (I): 2 Audience Relevance (A): 2 Gained Success (G): 8 Formula: H = (6 - 4) × 2 × 2 ÷ (8 × 9) = 8 ÷ 72 ≈ 11 Big ol' hypocrite: Claimed Belief (CB): 9 Perceived Behavior (PB): 2 → Gap = 7 Intent to Gain (I): 9 Audience Relevance (A): 9 Gained Success (G): 7 Formula: H = (9 - 2) × 9 × 9 ÷ (7 × 9) = 567 ÷ 63 = 90 Episode sources: Brunero, J. (2024). Hypocrisy and Conditional Requirements Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable control and the psychology of blame Alicke, M., Gordon, E., & Rose, D. (2013). Hypocrisy: what counts? Collins, T. P. (2017). Hypocrisy in American Political Attitudes: A Defense of Attitudinal Incongruence. Lee Best, L. (year unknown) Are you a hypocrite?
This episode introduces our exploration of this sticky and despicable but tragically relatable human trait, and explains why it's such an important topic to explore. In today's hyperconnected age, where we can accuse people of hypocrisy just as easily as we can become guilty of it ourselves, we should dive into fully understanding hypocrisy rather than simply pretend we're above it. Let's crack open the concept of hypocrisy by asking a few of the uncomfortable but necessary questions: What makes us all hypocrites? How do we prove it, and why should we bother? Why is it so much worse than just lying? And what can (or should) we even do about it?