Vicarious moral licensing: The influence of others' past moral actions on moral behavior.

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of others' prior nonprejudiced behavior on an individual's subsequent behavior. Five studies supported the hypothesis that people are more willing to express prejudiced attitudes when their group members' past behavior has established nonprejudiced credentials. Study 1a showed that participants who were told that their group was more moral than similar other groups were more willing to describe a job as better suited for Whites than for African Americans. In Study 1b, when given information on group members' prior nondiscriminatory behavior (selecting a Hispanic applicant in a prior task), participants subsequently gave more discriminatory ratings to the Hispanic applicant for a position stereotypically suited for majority members (Whites). In Study 2, moral self-concept mediated the effect of others' prior nonprejudiced actions on a participant's subsequent prejudiced behavior such that others' past nonprejudiced actions enhanced the participant's moral self-concept, and this inflated moral self-concept subsequently drove the participant's prejudiced ratings of a Hispanic applicant. In Study 3, the moderating role of identification with the credentialing group was tested. Results showed that participants expressed more prejudiced attitudes toward a Hispanic applicant when they highly identified with the group members behaving in nonprejudiced manner. In Study 4, the credentialing task was dissociated from the participants' own judgmental task, and, in addition, identification with the credentialing group was manipulated rather than measured. Consistent with prior studies, the results showed that participants who first had the opportunity to view an in-group member's nonprejudiced hiring decision were more likely to reject an African American man for a job stereotypically suited for majority members. These studies suggest a vicarious moral licensing effect.

Taking Close Others’ Environmental Behavior Into Account When Striking the Moral Balance? Evidence for Vicarious Licensing, Not for Vicarious Cleansing

“…This suggests that people may feel licensed to behave in a racist way when their in-group behaves in a nonracist way in a similar context. There are, however, some differences between our study and that of Kouchaki (2011). Therefore, our article adds to the literature in the following ways: First of all, the present research will study vicarious licensing and cleansing through close others in the moral domain of environmentally friendly behavior, because understanding the factors that influence people's environmentally friendly behaviors is a first step in inducing long-lasting environmentally friendly behaviors (Bratanova, Loughnan, & Gatersleben, 2012;Schmuck & Schultz, 2002).…”

“…This effect may be referred to as vicarious moral licensing (cf. Kouchaki, 2011). In contrast, if a close other behaves in a morally questionable manner, people may be subsequently more likely to behave relatively morally.…”

“…Specifically, Kouchaki (2011) showed that participants were less likely to rate a Latino as suitable for an ambitious, but stereotypical White job, when people of the same subject pool had previously included this same Latino in their list of preferred applicants in a hiring decision task. This suggests that people may feel licensed to behave in a racist way when their in-group behaves in a nonracist way in a similar context.…”

The Friendly Taking Effect: How Interpersonal Closeness Leads to Seemingly Selfish Yet Jointly Maximizing Choice

“…Likewise, Goldstein and Cialdini (2007) found that participants perceived themselves as more caring, sympathetic, and helpful after they observed another person with whom they felt a strong sense of merged identity offering help, again providing evidence that people mentally share the traits of a close other. Furthermore, the heightened sense of the self-other collective also gives people access (actual or illusory) to desirable outcomes of close others, such as information, consumption, knowledge, moral credentials, and success (Kouchaki 2011;Tesser 1988;Tu and Fishbach 2015;Wegner 1987;Wegner, Erber, and Raymond 1991).…”

Greenhouse gas emissions from a Danish riparian wetland before and after restoration

“…So far, mainly fi nancial drivers have been taken into account and research has just begun to (Kouchaki, 2011), we suggested that an individual's moral load can be reduced as well through optimistic beliefs regarding the problem-solving capacity of green technology in a society as a whole. Hence, we hypothesized that optimism in green technology weakens the individual's felt responsibility to act pro-environmentally.…”