Moral self-licensing effect: When virtuous behavior facilitates immoral behavior
Keywords:
moral self-licensing, moral credentials, moral behavior, moral consistencyAbstract
Empirical research over the past two decades, conducted primarily with samples from the U.S. and Western Europe, reveals that acting virtuously can subsequently cause people to act in a morally more dubious way. This phenomenon has been called the moral self-licensing effect. In this article we review the empirical evidence on this effect, as well as the theoretical explanations that have been proposed for it: the model of moral credentials and the credit model, which includes the theory of self-regulation and the theory of completion. Then, we analize the problem of the possible contradiction between this effect and the tendency to moral self-consistence. Finally, we examine the strength of the effect and to what extent it is generalizable to different cultures. The article closes with a section of conclusions in which the implications of the phenomenon are discussed.
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