What are some factors that give rise to hypocrisy?

peer pressure… forced conformity… greed… sex

Great question, @phoebusg. Wanting something that fair play would deny you is often the genesis of hypocrisy. Wanting things for yourself or your group that you don’t want anyone else to be able to have. The desire for unfair advantage. And there is an innate tendency to understand ourselves and forgive our own actions even when we do something we know it wrong. No such innate drive toward mercy applies to others outside our immediate circle of family and friends. For unknown miscreants, the tendency is to want vengeance, not forgiveness.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. One area that lends itself to high hypocrisy is the attempt to be politically correct. It causes all manner of bogus feelings. Political correctness disingenuous beliefs and behaviors. Deep down most people have this deep seated need to be liked or at least not hated. So they will cull their true and natural thoughts in order to seem like someone more acceptable especially if what they truly think or believe will make them seem like bigots, homophobes, chauvinist, and such. Propagated hard in politics where Israel can do no wrong no matter how many times they are on the bullying end of the conflict, but to say Israel was the bully risk getting you labeled an anti-Semite. So the best way is to be a hypocrite and put the onus of the conflict on the Arabs they are against. Well, I guess many just don’t like or trust the Arabs no matter what they do, so I guess they are true bigots when it comes to Arabs. But that is at least one area and motivating factor I see that springs forth hypocrisy.

The definition at the top on wikipedia was very interesting. It says the hypocrite is basically lying. I never think of it as a lie. I think the person who is hypocritical fails to see themselves accurately. Of course some of us are self aware and realize when we might be acting in a hypocritical way, but I think most hypocrites are oblivious, and many times come off as self righteous. Anyway, to try and tie this back to the Q, people who are in a sort of self denial might preach one thing, and practice the opposite.

Also, I think some people actually believe the ideals they tout are right in their own minds, but might find themselves acting differently when they find themselves in a situation. Kind of the failure to be able to put yourself in someone elses shoes, and pass judgment on their actions, and then when in the future you wind up in their shoes and act as they did.

@Hypocrisy_Central Good point, and quite true that political correctness can lead us to say one thing but our heart of hears leads us to do another. Also being a confirmed ideologue will lead to actions and words out of sync. It really doesn;t matter whenter its left or right wing ideology. Both the Nazis and the Soviet leaders talked of the good of the people, but did things that left millions of “the people” dead.

@Hypocrisy_Central exactly. I have many friends of Jewish descent. Some are taught to blindly believe Israel can do no wrong. Some are open to discussion. In the events of the armada attack earlier this year, I posted information directly against the current Israeli government and their actions. I don’t think we should enable such behaviors by ignoring them. A couple of months down the road, I lost 1 facebook contact over that. She’ll come around eventually—and hopefully. I have nothing against the Israelis but their collective behavior and governments to date have been bonkers to say the least.

self hatred

Feelings of inferiority.

Mabey its the urge to prove a point and is so focused on proving that point that they are not concerned with their own behaviour.

Lack of morality.

@DocteurAville especially ironic when hypocrisy comes up due to a question in morality. (As per the cheating question.)

Inability to look critically within.