Letting People Off the Hook: When Do Good Deeds Excuse Transgressions?
Abstract
Three studies examined when and why an actor's prior good deeds make observers more willing to excuse--or license--his or her subsequent, morally dubious behavior. In a pilot study, actors' good deeds made participants more forgiving of the actors' subsequent transgressions. In Study 1, participants only licensed blatant transgressions that were in a different domain than actors' good deeds; blatant transgressions in the same domain appeared hypocritical and suppressed licensing (e.g., fighting adolescent drug use excused sexual harassment, but fighting sexual harassment did not). Study 2 replicated these effects and showed that good deeds made observers license ambiguous transgressions (e.g., behavior that might or might not represent sexual harassment) regardless of whether the good deeds and the transgression were in the same or in a different domain--but only same-domain good deeds did so by changing participants' construal of the transgressions. Discussion integrates two models of why licensing occurs.
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Audiences must perceive a direct contradiction between claims and actions to recognize hypocrisy.
“audiences must perceive a direct contradiction between claims and actions to recognize hypocrisy”
From Strategic Silence: Withholding Certification Status as a Hypocrisy Avoidance Tactic (2018) · cites this paper as Effron and Monin, 2010
Attempts to make positive claims directly contradicted by recent negative events are more likely to be viewed as hypocritical and, when detected, likely wipe out positive effects of prior good deeds.
“attempts to make positive claims that are directly contradicted by recent negative events are more likely to be viewed as hypocritical (Godfrey, 2005) and when detected will likely wipe out the positive effects of prior good deeds (Effron and Monin, 2010).”
From Strategic Silence: Withholding Certification Status as a Hypocrisy Avoidance Tactic (2018) · cites this paper as Effron and Monin, 2010
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Clot, S., Grolleau, G., Ibanez, L., & Ndodjang, P. (2014) · Revue économique · doi:10.3917/reco.653.0557 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Principles of moral accounting: How our intuitive moral sense balances rights and wrongs
Johnson, S. G. B., & Ahn, J. (2020) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104467 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Dinh, T., Mikalouski, L., & Stockdale, M. S. (2022) · Psychology of Women Quarterly · doi:10.1177/03616843221099199 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
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Weaving, M., Haslam, N., & Fine, C. (2023) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0292953 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Effron, D. A., & Monin, B.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Effron, Daniel A.
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-10-26
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1618-1634
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2092843370
- Cited by
- 199
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 3.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Forgiveness and Related Behaviors
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- moral transgression, forgiveness, hypocrisy, domain specificity, construal level, moral judgment, sexual harassment
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Decision Making, Female, Guilt, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Judgment, Male, Morals, Pilot Projects, Punishment, Social Behavior, Social Justice, Young Adult
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