Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social Moral Licensing

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Moral licensing theory posits that individuals who initially behave morally may later display behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic. While previous literature mainly focused on individual moral licensing, the influences from the social environment have barely been investigated. To address this issue, the present paper develops a conceptual framework of social moral licensing and outlines two main avenues for future research via six propositions. The first avenue entitled “the conspicuousness of moral licensing” considers moral licensing that comes into play when people are observed by others. The second avenue entitled “the relativity of moral licensing” focusses on social comparisons between individuals, their ingroups and outgroups. Specific and testable social moral licensing effects are derived in both avenues. By doing so, this paper outlines promising directions for future studies in this new research stream.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexander, R. D. (1987). The biology of moral systems. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C., John, O. P., Keltner, D., & Kring, A. M. (2001). Who attains social status? Effects of personality traits and physical attractiveness in social groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 116–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C., & Kilduff, G. J. (2009). The pursuit of status in social groups. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(5), 295–298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, N. H. (1965). Averaging versus adding as a stimulus-combination rule in impression formation. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(4), 394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Antonetti, P., Crisafulli, B., & Maklan, S. (2018). Too good to be true? Boundary conditions to the use of downward social comparisons in service recovery. Journal of Service Research, 21(4), 438–455.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashworth, L., Darke, P. R., & Schaller, M. (2005). No one wants to look cheap: Trade-offs between social disincentives and the economic and psychological incentives to redeem coupons. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(4), 295–306.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Mechanisms of moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2).

  • Barden, J., Rucker, D. D., & Petty, R. E. (2005). Saying one thing and doing another: Examining the impact of event order on hypocrisy judgments of others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(11), 1463–1474.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barkan, R., Ayal, S., Gino, F., & Ariely, D. (2012). The pot calling the kettle black: Distancing response to ethical dissonance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(4), 757.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baron, R., & Kerr, N. (2003). Group process, group decision, group action 2/E. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beersma, B., & Van Kleef, G. A. (2011). How the grapevine keeps you in line: Gossip increases contributions to the group. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2(6), 642–649

    Google Scholar 

  • Bénabou, R., & Tirole, J. (2004). Willpower and personal rules. Journal of Political Economy, 112(4), 848–886.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bereczkei, T., Birkas, B., & Kerekes, Z. (2007). Public charity offer as a proximate factor of evolved reputation-building strategy: An experimental analysis of a real-life situation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28(4), 277–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bereczkei, T., Birkas, B., & Kerekes, Z. (2010). Altruism towards strangers in need: Costly signaling in an industrial society. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(2), 95–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, R. (2002). Why be moral? A conceptual model from developmental psychology. Human Development, 45(2), 104–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanken, I., van de Ven, N., & Zeelenberg, M. (2015). A meta-analytic review of moral licensing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(4), 540–558.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohner, G., & Schlueter, L. E. (2014). A room with a viewpoint revisited: Descriptive norms and hotel guests’ towel reuse behavior. PLoS ONE, 9(8):e104086.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bray, J., Johns, N., & Kilburn, D. (2011). An exploratory study into the factors impeding ethical consumption. Journal of Business Ethics, 98(4), 597–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, M. B. (1979). In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86(2), 307–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, M. B., & Chen, Y. R. (2007). Where (who) are collectives in collectivism? Toward conceptual clarification of individualism and collectivism. Psychological Review, 114(1), 133–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, M. B., & Gardner, W. (1996). Who is this “we”? Levels of collective identity and self representation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(1), 83–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, E. N., Vazire, S., & Furr, R. M. (2011). Meta-insight: Do people really know how others see them? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 831.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cascio, J., & Plant, E. A. (2015). Prospective moral licensing: Does anticipating doing good later allow you to be bad now? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 110–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R. B. (2003). Crafting normative messages to protect the environment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(4), 105–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Influence: Science and practice. Boston, MA: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R. B., Kallgren, C. A., & Reno, R. R. (1991). A focus theory of normative conduct: A theoretical refinement and reevaluation of the role of norms in human behavior. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 24, 201–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, R. L. (1996). For better or worse: The impact of upward social comparison on self-evaluations. Psychological Bulletin, 119(1), 51–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conway, P., & Peetz, J. (2012). When does feeling moral actually make you a better person? Conceptual abstraction moderates whether past moral deeds motivate consistency or compensatory behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(7), 907–919.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornelissen, G., Bashshur, M. R., Rode, J., & Le Menestrel, M. (2013). Rules or consequences? The role of ethical mind-sets in moral dynamics. Psychological Science, 24(4), 482–488.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cremer, D. D., van Vugt, M., & Sharp, J. (1999). Effect of collective self-esteem on ingroup evaluations. The Journal of Social Psychology, 139(4), 530–532.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crocker, J., & Luhtanen, R. (1990). Collective self-esteem and ingroup bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(1), 60–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Astous, A., & Legendre, A. (2009). Understanding consumers’ ethical justifications: A scale for appraising consumers’ reasons for not behaving ethically. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(2), 255–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darley, J. M., & Latane, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8(4), 377–383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Effron, D. A., & Conway, P. (2015). When virtue leads to villainy: Advances in research on moral self-licensing. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 32–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Effron, D. A., & Monin, B. (2010). Letting people off the hook: When do good deeds excuse transgressions?. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(12), 1618–1634.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2003). The nature of human altruism. Nature, 425(6960), 785–791.

    Google Scholar 

  • Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishbach, A., Zhang, Y., & Koo, M. (2009). The dynamics of self-regulation. European Review of Social Psychology, 20(1), 315–344.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gintis, H., Henrich, J., Bowles, S., Boyd, R., & Fehr, E. (2008). Strong reciprocity and the roots of human morality. Social Justice Research, 21(2), 241–253.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gneezy, A., Imas, A., Brown, A., Nelson, L. D., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Paying to be nice: Consistency and costly prosocial behavior. Management Science, 58(1), 179–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, N. J., & Cialdini, R. B. (2007). The spyglass self: a model of vicarious self-perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(3), 402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, N. J., Cialdini, R. B., & Griskevicius, V. (2008). A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(3), 472–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, M., & Low, K. (2014). Public integrity, private hypocrisy, and the moral licensing effect. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 42(3), 391–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Sundie, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Miller, G. F., & Kenrick, D. T. (2007). Blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption: When romantic motives elicit strategic costly signals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(1), 85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haidt, J., & Graham, J. (2007). When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research, 20(1), 98–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardy, C. L., & Van Vugt, M. (2006). Nice guys finish first: The competitive altruism hypothesis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(10), 1402–1413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values. New York: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard, J. W., & Rothbart, M. (1980). Social categorization and memory for in-group and out-group behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38(2), 301–310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, J., Mullen, E., & Murnighan, J. K. (2009). On the pendulum of moral action: The effects of own and others’ past moral actions on future moral behavior. Netherlands: University of Groningen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, J., Mullen, E., & Murnighan, J. K. (2011). Striving for the moral self: The effects of recalling past moral actions on future moral behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(5), 701–713.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, D. A. (1994). Interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerr, N. L., & Bruun, S. E. (1983). Dispensability of member effort and group motivation losses: Free-rider effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 78–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan, U., & Dhar, R. (2006). Licensing effect in consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 259–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kouchaki, M. (2011). Vicarious moral licensing: The influence of others’ past moral actions on moral behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 702–715.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristofferson, K., White, K., & Peloza, J. (2014). The nature of slacktivism: How the social observability of an initial act of token support affects subsequent prosocial action. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(6), 1149–1166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lammers, J., Stapel, D. A., & Galinsky, A. D. (2010). Power increases hypocrisy moralizing in reasoning, immorality in behavior. Psychological Science, 21(5), 737–744.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latane, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(6), 822–832.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leary, M. R., & Kowalski, R. M. (1990). Impression management: A literature review and two-component model. Psychological Bulletin, 107(1), 34–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • LeBoeuf, R. A., Shafir, E., & Bayuk, J. B. (2010). The conflicting choices of alternating selves. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111(1), 48–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S. W. S., Tang, H., Wan, J., Mai, X., & Liu, C. (2015). A cultural look at moral purity: Wiping the face clean. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 577.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, E. E., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2015). Prosocial lies: When deception breeds trust. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 126, 88–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockwood, P., & Kunda, Z. (1997). Superstars and me: Predicting the impact of role models on the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 91–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mai, R., Hoffmann, S., Lasarov, W., & Buhs, A. (2017). Ethical products = less strong: How explicit and implicit reliance on the lay theory affects consumption behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 1–19.

  • Malle, B. F. (2006). The actor-observer asymmetry in attribution: A (surprising) meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(6), 895.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazar, N., and Zhong, & C. B (2010). Do green products make us better people? Psychological Science, 21, 494–498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazar, N., Amir, O., & Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 45, 633–644.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKimmie, B. M., Terry, D. J., Hogg, M. A., Manstead, A. S., Spears, R., & Doosje, B. (2003). I’m a hypocrite, but so is everyone else: Group support and the reduction of cognitive dissonance. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 7(3), 214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merritt, A. C., Effron, D. A., Fein, S., Savitsky, K. K., Tuller, D. M., & Monin, B. (2012). The strategic pursuit of moral credentials. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3), 774–777.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merritt, A. C., Effron, D. A., & Monin, B. (2010). Moral self-licensing: When being good frees us to be bad. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(5), 344–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. T., & Effron, D. A. (2010). Chapter three-psychological license: When it is needed and how it functions. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 115–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monin, B., & Merritt, A. (2012). Moral hypocrisy, moral inconsistency, and the struggle for moral integrity, Unpublished manuscript.

  • Monin, B., & Miller, D. T. (2001). Moral credentials and the expression of prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(1), 33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morozov, E. (2009). The brave new world of slacktivism. Foreign Policy, 19(5).

  • Morse, S., & Gergen, K. J. (1970). Social comparison, self-consistency, and the concept of self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(1), 148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mullen, E., & Monin, B. (2016). Consistency versus licensing effects of past moral behavior. Psychology, 67(1), 363.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, S., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Creeping dispositionism: The temporal dynamics of behavior prediction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(3), 485.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohtsubo, Y., Takezawa, M., & Fukuno, M. (2009). Mutual liking and metaperception accuracy. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 707–718.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ong, A. D., & Weiss, D. J. (2000). The impact of anonymity on responses to sensitive questions1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(8), 1691–1708.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polman, E., Pettit, N. C., & Wiesenfeld, B. M. (2013). Effects of wrongdoer status on moral licensing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(4), 614–623.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, C. A. J., & Smith, R. H. (2009). The inherent joy in seeing hypocrites hoisted with their own petards. Unpublished manuscript.

  • Preuss, G. S., & Alicke, M. D. (2009). Everybody loves me: Self-evaluations and metaperceptions of dating popularity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 937–950.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratner, R. K., & Kahn, R. (2002). The impact of private versus public consumption on variety-seeking behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 29(2), 246–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridgeway, C. L., & Walker, H. A. (1995). Status structures. In K. S. Cook, G. A. Fine & J. S. House (Eds.), Sociological perspectives on social psychology (pp. 281–310). Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachdeva, S., Iliev, R., & Medin, D. L. (2009). Sinning saints and saintly sinners the paradox of moral self-regulation. Psychological Science, 20(4), 523–528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, W. P., Khazian, A. M., & Zaleski, A. C. (2008). Using normative social influence to promote conservation among hotel guests. Social Influence, 3(1), 4–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherif, M., & Hovland, C. I. (1961). Social judgment: Assimilation and contrast effects in communication and attitude change. Oxford: Yale Univer. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, J., & Fernandez, N. C. (2008). To practice what we preach: The use of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance to motivate behavior change. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(2), 1024–1051.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, 33(47), 74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Temporal construal. Psychological Review, 110(3), 403.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valdesolo, P., & DeSteno, D. (2007). Moral hypocrisy social groups and the flexibility of virtue. Psychological Science, 18(8), 689–690.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler, L. (1966). Motivation as a determinant of upward comparison. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1, 27–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, K., & Dahl, D. W. (2006). To be or not be? The influence of dissociative reference groups on consumer preferences. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16(4), 404–414.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, K., & Peloza, J. (2009). Self-benefit versus other-benefit marketing appeals: Their effectiveness in generating charitable support. Journal of Marketing, 73(4), 109–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilhelm, W. J., & Gunawong, P. (2016). Cultural dimensions and moral reasoning: A comparative study. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 36(5/6), 335–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 90(2), 245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahavi, A. (1975). Mate selection: Selection for a handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 53(1), 205–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhong, C. B., & Liljenquist, K. (2006). Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing. Science, 313(5792), 1451–1452.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhong, C. B., Liljenquist, K. A., & Cain, D. M. (2009). Moral self-regulation. In D. Cremer (Ed.), Psychological perspectives on ethical behavior and decision making (pp. 75–89). Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the editor as well the two anonymous reviewers who gave us extremely helpful comments and helped us to substantially improve this manuscript.

Funding

This research has not been funded by a third party.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Westring 425, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Wassili Lasarov & Stefan Hoffmann

Authors
  1. Wassili Lasarov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stefan Hoffmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wassili Lasarov.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lasarov, W., Hoffmann, S. Social Moral Licensing. J Bus Ethics 165, 45–66 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4083-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4083-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation