The Character Gap

Christian Miller is Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and Director of the Character Project as well as author of two previous books on character. The title suggests the thesis that there is what he calls a character gap between a virtuous character and our actual character. He begins by a general discussion of character, virtue and vice and some reflections on why it is good to develop good character. Based on extensive psychological research and experiments, especially on helping, harming, lying and cheating, he concludes that most of us have neither well developed virtues nor corresponding vices - rather, we are a mixed bag somewhere in the middle, which is a realistic if slightly shocking observation in view of our general good opinion of ourselves and indeed of others.

A sobering case study comes from a man who suffered a heart attack in a supermarket – most people did nothing, and even stepped over the body; apparently, one of the reasons is that we do not want to get involved in order to avoid embarrassment. The situation was then replicated in a less traumatic way when an experimenter is going around with thing dropping out of a torn bag, and only three of 20 adults did anything to help. Many readers will be familiar with the research of Stanley Milgram on the pressure of obedience, which leads to the general conclusion that most of us have characters which, when put to the test, lead us to obey people we see as legitimate authority figures. Interestingly, some experiments show, perhaps not surprisingly, that empathy leads to greater altruism. The second part of the book is summarised in the number of lessons demonstrating the ambiguity of our moral behaviour and mixed motivations: the same act of giving to charity can stem from a variety of motives.

If we are currently neither virtuous or vicious and wish to develop good character, is there anything we can do? The author addresses this in the third part of the book, covering what he calls less promising strategies, including doing nothing, virtue labelling and nudging towards desirable outcomes. He suggests a number of criteria including lasting positive effects in promoting virtuous behaviour and motivation. More promising, in his view, are moral role models and emulation, selecting situations that encourage development of virtue, and overcoming the bystander effect illustrated in the supermarket incident above. The final chapter is more explicitly Christian, although many of the principles also apply in other religions. There is a great deal of character and moral teaching in the New Testament, along with the exemplar of Jesus himself. The author cites many studies showing the benefits of religious observation, focusing particularly on sanctification. Oddly enough, the word love does not appear in the index, when for me this summarises the essence of spirituality as exemplified in Christianity. Overall, the book is a sobering reflection on the ambivalent nature of human behaviour and motivation, made all the more authoritative by its research basis.