Moral licensing

{{psychology}}
'''Moral licensing''' or '''self-licensing''' is a [[cognitive bias]] that occurs when a person uses their prior good behavior to justify later bad behavior, often without explicitly using that logic. The effect has been demonstrated in numerous psychological studies.<ref>Blanken I, van de Ven N, Zeelenberg M. [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167215572134 A meta-analytic review of moral licensing]. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin'', 2015;41(4):540-558. DOI: 10.1177/0146167215572134</ref> Evidence suggests that, though the effect is present in all sampled cultures, cultural differences explain a substantial amount of the total variation of the effect size of moral licensing.<ref>Simbrunner P, Schlegelmilch BB. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11301-017-0128-0 Moral licensing: a culture-moderated meta-analysis]. ''Management Review Quarterly'', 2017;67(4),201-225. DOI: 10.1007/s11301-017-0128-0</ref> Thus, in contrast to most cognitive biases, it may be possible to actively discourage this bias in oneself.

==Logical fallacy==
If performed explicitly or intentionally, moral licensing acts as a fallacious attempt to shield oneself from criticism. The implicit logic operates as follows: {{syl
|2=If my good actions in the past "outweigh" this new bad action, then I am morally allowed to perform it.
|4=My good actions in the past outweigh this new bad action.
|6=I am morally allowed to perform this new bad action.
}}

The logic is [[valid]] but [[unsound]]: the first premise presumes that each person has a sort of "moral balance" or "[[karma]]". This can be thought of as a "moral bank account" where one can "deposit" morality points for new moral actions and "withdraw" morality points for new immoral actions. Very few people adhere to [[Morality|moralities]] that would allow this sort of moral balancing act. This is because very few people would be comfortable with excusing (for example) murder committed by somebody who had "saved up" enough moral actions over their life.

As an example of this behavior, [[alt-right]] [[YouTube]]r [[No Bullshit]] attacked [[Ezra Levant]] for "[[Antisemitism|acting Jewish]]" and defended this by saying that "I've called out every other race and creed on this channel".<ref>{{a|1=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4XBKc9Oau8|2=Why Everyone's Leaving Rebel Media}}</ref>﻿ This is a [[red herring]] or a [[whataboutism]] and does not excuse bullshit for his behavior. Instead, it's a deflection from the issue at hand. The person using the moral license is attempting to shift the conversation from a discussion from "this new bad action I did" onto "am I a good person or a bad person", which are separate questions.

==External links==
*{{wpa|Self-licensing}}
*{{wpa|Moral credential effect}}
*https://medium.com/danmartines/why-moral-licensing-is-ever-more-important-33e3ac053bd8
*http://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/moral-licensing-and-why-its-so-hard-to-be-a-saint
*http://bigthink.com/articles/malcolm-gladwell-on-the-2016-election-sexism-and-moral-licensing
*http://99u.com/articles/29299/permission-to-sin-how-moral-licensing-sabotages-your-long-term-goals
*https://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/moral-licensing-how-being-good-can-make-you-bad/

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{stub|psychology}}
[[Category:Cognitive biases]]

Categories: Cognitive biases