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moral licensing
Doing a good deed makes us more likely to cheat later.
A 2010 study found that participants who bought green products were more likely to lie and steal in a subsequent task.
Researchers compared participants who shopped in an eco-friendly store with those who shopped in a conventional store. In a later, unrelated computer task, the eco-friendly shoppers were significantly more likely to cheat to earn extra money.
Your brain uses recent good behavior as a permission slip to slack off.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Mazar & Zhong, 2010, Psychological Science
- What the check found
- The 2010 study by Mazar and Zhong in Psychological Science indeed found that participants who bought green products in a lab store subsequently cheated and stole more in an unrelated task (the moral licensing effect).
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.