Moral licensing: a culture-moderated meta-analysis

Simbrunner, Philipp; Schlegelmilch, Bodo B.

doi:10.1007/s11301-017-0128-0

Cited by 53 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Our study supports the notion that KAMs can serve as a moral license to waive an adjustment. Recent research shows that the strength of this effect depends on individual beliefs about moral values, which in turn are shaped by an individual's socio-cultural background (Simbrunner & Schlegelmilch, 2017;Ward, 2015). Therefore, it may be fruitful to conduct this experiment in different cultural settings (Nolder & Riley, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real effects of reporting key audit matters on auditors' judgment and choice of action

Asbahr

Ruhnke

2019

Int J Auditing

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This experimental study analyzes whether reporting an accounting estimate as a key audit matter (KAM) can influence auditor judgment about the accounting estimate and the corresponding action. We find that skeptical action in the form of proposed adjustment amounts is significantly lower when the accounting estimate is reported as a KAM. Thus, the disclosure of a KAM can serve as a moral license to waive an adjustment. Taking into account that the KAM disclosure does not affect auditors' skeptical judgments in the form of a reasonableness assessment of the accounting estimate, our results indicate the existence of a judgment–action gap. Furthermore, implicit client pressure does not enlarge the moral licensing effect of the KAM disclosure. We also find evidence that audit effort is not affected by reporting a KAM. Overall, our study contributes to the current debate about the audit reporting model by showing that reporting a KAM might have unintended “real effects” on auditors' actions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real effects of reporting key audit matters on auditors' judgment and choice of action

Asbahr

Ruhnke

2019

Int J Auditing

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“…Moderators of the moral licensing effect are largely unknown (Blanken, van de Ven, & Zeelenberg, 2015), but Simbrunner and Schlegelmilch (2017) recently provided evidence for two potential moderators: (1) The culture of the studied population and (2) the type of control condition (neutral vs. immoral previous behavior). Specifically, they argued that the cultural background of participants shapes their moral standards by processes of socialization and thus influences their moral self-concept.…”

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confidence: 99%

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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“…Even if the effect size was equal to the effect size estimated by the meta-analysis by Blanken et al ( 2015;d = 0.31), the statistical power of two of our experiments would be larger than 80%. It is still possible that there exists large heterogeneity in the size of the moral licensing effect which may depend, for example, on culture or the features of the task used in a study (Simbrunner & Schlegelmilch, 2017…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent unsuccessful attempts to replicate some of the licensing experiments (Blanken, van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & C, 2014) and findings from meta-analyses, which show a generally small and unstable effect of moral licensing (Blanken, Ven, & Zeelenberg, 2015;Simbrunner & Schlegelmilch, 2017), have called the robustness and practical significance of moral licensing into question. One of the possible explanations for the heterogeneity of the licensing effect is that moral licensing in moderated by a host of factors.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…One of the possible explanations for the heterogeneity of the licensing effect is that moral licensing in moderated by a host of factors. Whereas some scholars have proposed a number of licensing moderators (see Mullen & Monin, 2016 for the most recent review), recent 4 meta-analyses have found only moderating effects of publication status (with published studies reporting higher effects and unpublished studies reporting small or no effects; see Blanken et al, 2015;Simbrunner & Schlegelmilch, 2017) and culture (with decreasing magnitude of the effect in North American, Western European, and South-East Asia; see Simbrunner & Schlegelmilch, 2017). In any case, the presence of publication bias combined with the lack of replications of licensing studies (cf.…”

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confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Green consumption does not make people cheat: Three replications of a moral licensing experiment (more recent version was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.01.011)

Urban¹,

Bahník²,

Kohlová³

2017

Preprint

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A recent study (Mazar & Zhong, 2010) argued that green consumption may serve as a moral license and thus lead to subsequent dishonest behavior. In our three replications of the study (total N = 1,274), two of which were preregistered, participants' level of green consumption was manipulated by having them purchase goods in either a green or conventional store. Three different tasks which allowed participants to cheat for monetary profit were used to measure dishonesty across the experiments. We found no effect of green consumption on subsequent honesty. These results cast doubt on the size of the effect found in the original study and suggest that green consumption is unlikely to trigger a cross-domain moral licensing effect.

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Moral licensing: a culture-moderated meta-analysis

Cited by 53 publications

References 49 publications

Real effects of reporting key audit matters on auditors' judgment and choice of action

Real effects of reporting key audit matters on auditors' judgment and choice of action

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

Green consumption does not make people cheat: Three replications of a moral licensing experiment (more recent version was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.01.011)

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