Smug Alert! Exploring self-licensing behavior in a cheating game

Clot, Sophie; Grolleau, Gilles; Ibanez, Lisette

doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2014.01.039

Cited by 60 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Specifically, p-values between .05 and .10 are often considered "marginally significant" and are often interpreted as constituting at least some support for the hypothesis. This also occurred in the moral licensing literature (e.g., Effron et al 2012;Jordan et al 2011;Clot, Grolleau, & Ibanez, 2014). Furthermore, some authors might use one-tailed hypothesis tests if they made a prediction about the direction of the effect.…”

Section: Comparison Pet-peese and 3-psmmentioning

confidence: 92%

Has the evidence for moral licensing been inflated by publication bias?

Kuper

Bott

2019

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Moral licensing describes the phenomenon that displaying moral behavior can lead to subsequent immoral behavior. This is usually explained by the idea that an initial moral act affirms the moral self-image and hence licenses subsequent immoral acts. Previous meta-analyses on moral licensing indicate significant overall effects of d> .30. However, several large replication studies have either not found the effect or reported a substantially smaller effect size. The present article investigated whether this can be attributed to publication bias. Datasets from two previous meta-analyses on moral licensing were compared and when necessary modified. The larger dataset was used for the present analyses. Using PET-PEESE and a three-parameter-selection-model (3-PSM), we found some evidence for publication bias. The adjusted effect sizes were reduced to d= -0.05, p= .64 and d= 0.18, p= .002, respectively. While the first estimate could be an underestimation, we also found indications that the second estimate might exaggerate the true effect size. It is concluded that both the evidence for and the size of moral licensing effects has likely been inflated by publication bias. Furthermore, our findings indicate that culture moderates the moral licensing effect. Recommendations for future meta-analytic and empirical work are given. Subsequent studies on moral licensing should be adequately powered and ideally pre-registered.

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Section: Comparison Pet-peese and 3-psmmentioning

confidence: 92%

Has the evidence for moral licensing been inflated by publication bias?

Kuper

Bott

2019

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“…Furthermore, when Ebersole et al (2015) attempted to replicate the first study in this tradition (Monin & Miller 2001, study 1) across many labs and 3,134 participants, they observed a reliable licensing effect, with a 95% confidence interval for d ranging from 0.08 to 0.21. Licensing effects have also been demonstrated in naturally occurring settings (Hofmann et al 2014) and discussed outside of psychology, in marketing (Huber et al 2008), management (Klotz & Bolino 2013, Ormiston & Wong 2013, economics (Brañas-Garza et al 2013;Clot et al 2013Clot et al , 2014bPloner & Regner 2013), nutrition (Chang & Chiou 2014, Hennecke & Freund 2014, Weibel et al 2014, and energy policy ( Jacobsen et al 2012, Tiefenbeck et al 2013).…”

Section: The Puzzle Of Moral Licensingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistency Versus Licensing Effects of Past Moral Behavior

Mullen

Monin

2016

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

309

283

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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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“…Furthermore, our results are interesting for an international audience. The licensing effect has been demonstrated in countries such as the US (Monin and Miller 2001), France (Clot et al 2013), Canada (Mazar and Zhong 2010), Madagascar (Clot et al 2014), Uruguay (Brañas-Garza et al 2013), and, in this case, the Netherlands. These findings, that purchasing a product advertised as green may instigate licensing effects (e.g., has negative post-purchase effects), are thus likely to arise in countries around the globe as it constitutes a general mechanism.…”

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confidence: 98%