The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Consistency Versus Licensing Effects of Past Moral Behavior
Open accessAbstract
Why does past moral behavior sometimes lead people to do more of the same (consistency), whereas sometimes it liberates them to do the opposite (licensing)? We organize the literature on moderators of moral consistency versus licensing effects using five conceptual themes: construal level, progress versus commitment, identification, value reflection, and ambiguity. Our review reveals that individuals are more likely to exhibit consistency when they focus abstractly on the connection between their initial behavior and their values, whereas they are more likely to exhibit licensing when they think concretely about what they have accomplished with their initial behavior-as long as the second behavior does not blatantly threaten a cherished identity. Moreover, many studies lacked baseline conditions ("donut" designs), leaving it ambiguous whether licensing was observed. And although many proposed moderators yielded significant interactions, evidence for both significant consistency and balancing simple effects in the same study was nearly nonexistent.
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Cleansing my abuse: A reparative response model of perpetrating abusive supervisor behavior
Liao, Z., Yam, K. C., Johnson, R. E., Liu, W., & Song, Z. (2018) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/apl0000319 · Cited by 151
Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., & Bushman, B. J. (2023) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/17456916221121815 · Cited by 53
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
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
Making nice or faking nice? Exploring supervisors’ two-faced response to their past abusive behavior
McClean, S. T., Courtright, S. H., Yim, J., & Smith, T. A. (2021) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/peps.12424 · Cited by 28
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
Rotella, A., Jung, J., Chinn, C., & Barclay, P. (2026) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/01461672251345512 · Cited by 5
Moral Observer-Licensing in Cyberspace
Ran, Y., Hou, Y., Dong, Z., & Wang, Q. (2022) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs12050148 · Cited by 1
Motoyama, H., Ikeda, A., & Okumura, Y. (2024) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106065
Metadata
- Authors
- Mullen, E., & Monin, B.
- Venue
- Annual Review of Psychology
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2016-01-04
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 363-385
- ISSN
- 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2085
- OpenAlex
- W1811636605
- Cited by
- 386
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 1.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
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