There has been a bumper crop of politicians who have been revealed to be less than upstanding citizens. John Edwards, a former senator who was in the running for the 2008 presidential nomination, and who said family values were at his core, was revealed to have had an affair with a campaign worker, at the same time his wife was battling cancer. Similarly, New York governor Eliot Spitzer, a married, moralizing crusader for laws against sexual tourism, was caught in an escort service “sting”, and forced to resign. These are only two of several recent examples of politicians who have celebrity status, and flaunted the social norms of decency.
Apply the course concepts of the dark side of self-esteem and moral hypocrisy to this type of behavior. What do you conclude about people who behave in such a way? Hint: Explicitly use each concept by name and also give a one sentence definition of it before explaining how the concepts apply to these people.
