The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Moral Self‐Licensing: When Being Good Frees Us to Be Bad
Abstract
Past good deeds can liberate individuals to engage in behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic, behaviors that they would otherwise avoid for fear of feeling or appearing immoral. We review research on this moral self‐licensing effect in the domains of political correctness, prosocial behavior, and consumer choice. We also discuss remaining theoretical tensions in the literature: Do good deeds reframe bad deeds (moral credentials) or merely balance them out (moral credits)? When does past behavior liberate and when does it constrain? Is self‐licensing primarily for others’ benefit (self‐presentational) or is it also a way for people to reassure themselves that they are moral people? Finally, we propose avenues for future research that could begin to address these unanswered questions.
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Citations
Cites
A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
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“Yet, much psychological research suggests that personal inconsistency is uncomfortable and threatening (e.g., Festinger, 1957), leading people to act in line with their past behavior – for example, the famous foot-in-the-door effect (Freedman & Fraser, 1966) demonstrates that people are more likely…”
The Psychology of Self-Affirmation: Sustaining the Integrity of the Self
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Compliance without pressure: The foot-in-the-door technique.
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“…inconsistency is uncomfortable and threatening (e.g., Festinger, 1957), leading people to act in line with their past behavior – for example, the famous foot-in-the-door effect (Freedman & Fraser, 1966) demonstrates that people are more likely to help if they have been induced to help in the past.”
BackgroundMoral credentials and the expression of prejudice.
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“Monin and Miller (2001) let some participants demonstrate their lack of prejudice before presenting them with this police-force scenario by asking them to play the role of an employer choosing which candidate to hire for an unrelated consulting job.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationGoals as excuses or guides: the liberating effect of perceived goal progress on choice.
Fishbach, A., & Dhar, R. (2005) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/497548 · Cited by 704
Attribution versus persuasion as a means for modifying behavior.
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Letting People Off the Hook: When Do Good Deeds Excuse Transgressions?
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Self-citation
Cited by
Climate‐relevant behavioral spillover and the potential contribution of social practice theory
Nash, N., Whitmarsh, L., Capstick, S., Hargreaves, T., Poortinga, W., Thomas, G., Sautkina, E., & Xenias, D. (2017) · WIREs Climate Change · doi:10.1002/wcc.481 · Cited by 214
Letting People Off the Hook: When Do Good Deeds Excuse Transgressions?
Effron, D. A., & Monin, B. (2010) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167210385922 · Cited by 199
Self-citationProsocial Conformity: Prosocial Norms Generalize Across Behavior and Empathy
Nook, E. C., Ong, D. C., Morelli, S. A., Mitchell, J. P., & Zaki, J. (2016) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167216649932 · Cited by 186
Elevation Puts Moral Values Into Action
Schnall, S., & Roper, J. (2012) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550611423595 · Cited by 145
Increasing altruistic and cooperative behaviour with simple moral nudges
Capraro, V., Jagfeld, G., Klein, R., Mul, M., & de Pol, I. V. (2019) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-48094-4 · Cited by 135
Being Bad in a Video Game Can Make Us Morally Sensitive
Grizzard, M., Tamborini, R., Lewis, R. J., Wang, L., & Prabhu, S. (2014) · Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2013.0658 · Cited by 108
Indirect rebound effects on the consumer level: A state-of-the-art literature review
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Moral credentials versus moral credits: Two paths to consumers’ licensing of brand transgressions
Ryoo, Y. (2022) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.048 · Cited by 38
Barreiro-Hurle, J., Dessart, F. J., Rommel, J., Czajkowski, M., Espinosa-Goded, M., Rodriguez-Entrena, M., Thomas, F., & Zagorska, K. (2023) · Food Policy · doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102481 · Cited by 37
Carbon tax salience counteracts price effects through moral licensing
Hartmann, P., Marcos, A., & Barrutia, J. M. (2023) · Global Environmental Change · doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102635 · Cited by 32
Has the evidence for moral licensing been inflated by publication bias?
Kuper, N., & Bott, A. (2019) · Meta-Psychology · doi:10.15626/mp.2018.878 · Cited by 30
No Evidence of Within-Domain Moral Licensing in the Environmental Domain
Urban, J., Braun Kohlová, M., & Bahník, Š. (2021) · Environment and Behavior · doi:10.1177/0013916520942604 · Cited by 26
Moral licensing, instrumental apology and insincerity aversion: Taking Immanuel Kant to the lab
Khalil, E. L., & Feltovich, N. (2018) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0206878 · Cited by 17
Principles of moral accounting: How our intuitive moral sense balances rights and wrongs
Johnson, S. G. B., & Ahn, J. (2021) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104467 · Cited by 14
Moral licensing and habits: Do solar households make negligent choices?
McCarthy, B. (2024) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2023.114213 · Cited by 13
No evidence of moral licensing in a laboratory bribe-taking task
Bahník, Š., & Vranka, M. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-16800-4 · Cited by 7
Rotella, A., Jung, J., Chinn, C., & Barclay, P. (2026) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/01461672251345512 · Cited by 5
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Self-citationMoral Observer-Licensing in Cyberspace
Ran, Y., Hou, Y., Dong, Z., & Wang, Q. (2022) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs12050148 · Cited by 1
Li, W., Wu, L., Cheng, X., Zheng, X., Li, S., & Wu, M. (2026) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106607 · Cited by 1
Yuriev, A. (2026) · Sustainable Development · doi:10.1002/sd.71601 · Cited by 1
Motoyama, H., Ikeda, A., & Okumura, Y. (2024) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106065
Xiao, Q., Li, L. C., Au, Y. L., Tan, S. N., Chung, W. T., & Feldman, G. (2024) · International Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.5334/irsp.945
Pasca, L., & Moreno-Gata, S. (2026) · Ecopsychology · doi:10.1177/19429347261441083
Metadata
- Authors
- Merritt, A. C., Effron, D. A., & Monin, B.
- Venue
- Social and Personality Psychology Compass
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2010-05
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 344-357
- ISSN
- 1751-9004 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2124752314
- Cited by
- 1,025
- References
- 7
- FWCI
- 7.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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