The article presents the result of the empirical study of the implicit concepts of a moral (“decent”) person, which was carried out on various samples of respondents: students from different regions of Russia (Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk) and successful people, who can be attributed to the scientific and artistic elite of the country (this group included leaders of scientific and creative collectives, doctors, economists, scientists, artists, musicians). The purpose of the study was to test the theoretical hypothesis about the idea of the existence of “moral elite” as the guardian of traditional moral and spiritual values and ideals in the modern Russian society. The empirical hypothesis of the study was the suggestion that the hypothetically identified, most important characteristics (signs) of the moral elite will be reflected in the notions of a decent man, at that samples with different statuses will differ in terms of completeness of the reflected characteristics. We used the technique of investigating implicit concepts of a decent person, methods of statistical processing for the obtained results, and content analysis. It has been established that the hypothesis regarding the complex of characteristics that corresponds to belonging to the moral elite has been confirmed in the study of implicit concepts of a decent person, and in the student sample these characteristics are only partially presented, while in the sample consisting of people who can be attributed to the creative and scientific elite, the totality of characteristics is presented in full. It has been shown that the priority of moral mentality over everyday success, which is characteristic of the Russian mentality, distinguishes the ideas of successful people, who have achieved a lot in scientific and creative work. The practical significance of the obtained results is the concretization of qualities that distinguish a decent person, and the possibility of using the obtained knowledge in the educational process and in professional selection.