Moral licensing
Also known as: Self-licensing, Moral self-licensing, Moral credentialing
Doing one good deed gives us license to follow it with a bad one.
What it means
The phenomenon whereby an initial moral or virtuous act increases people's subsequent willingness to act in ways that are dubious, selfish, or unethical, as if the good deed earned a moral credit to be spent. Two mechanisms are proposed: moral credentialing, where past good behavior reframes a later questionable act as not really bad, and moral crediting, where good behavior accrues a balance that licenses indulgence. The effect threatens the assumption that promoting one good behavior reliably spills over into others — it can backfire. It has been observed in domains from prejudice and charity to consumption and dishonesty. It cautions practitioners that rewarding or highlighting virtue may inadvertently free people to lapse.
Examples
People who first affirmed they were not prejudiced were then more willing to favor a man over a woman for a stereotypically male job.
Having filled the basket with organic vegetables, shoppers feel entitled to add the wine and the chocolate, and leave having spent more and eaten worse than they planned.
You cycled to work every day this week, so Friday's takeaway and the skipped gym session feel earned rather than chosen. The virtue already banked reads as permission.
First described in Monin & Miller (2001); Khan & Dhar (2006).