title: A meta-analytic review of moral licensing.
abstract: Moral licensing refers to the effect that when people initially behave in a moral way, they are later more likely to display behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic. We provide a state-of-the-art overview of moral licensing by conducting a meta-analysis of 91 studies (7,397 participants) that compare a licensing condition with a control condition. Based on this analysis, the magnitude of the moral licensing effect is estimated to be a Cohen's d of 0.31. We tested potential moderators and found that published studies tend to have larger moral licensing effects than unpublished studies. We found no empirical evidence for other moderators that were theorized to be of importance. The effect size estimate implies that studies require many more participants to draw solid conclusions about moral licensing and its possible moderators.
authors.affiliation: Tilburg University, The Netherlands i.blanken@tilburguniversity.edu.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Blanken
authors.affiliation: Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van de Ven
authors.affiliation: Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeelenberg
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: moral credentials; moral licensing; psychological licensing; self-licensing