Moral Licensing – How Your Good Deeds Make You Bad
Moral licensing is a tendency to justify our current poor actions using previous good behavior.
“I will definitely stop partying often starting next month”, said Amy. Now since the next month was 1 week away, Amy decided she must party every day before giving up on the fun in a few days.
Whether Amy stopped her partying habits in the next month is a different question altogether. But have you justified your current bad behavior or actions based on past or future good action?
Such behavior is common for new year resolutions such as quitting smoking or drinking and working out. Such a human thought process is called moral licensing.What is moral licensing?
As per psychology, moral licensing is the process of fooling ourselves to justify bad behavior using other good behavior. The effect causes people who exhibit good behavior initially to later perform dishonest, unethical, or bad actions later on. Some call the behavior self-licensing.
As per the theory, the phenomenon manifests in two ways:1. Your past good actions warranting current bad actions:After completing a positive action, you feel you have the license to do something bad. For example, if you started working out today, you believe you can eat a pizza for dinner. Your good behavior prompts you to do something problematic because you believe you deserve it.
2. Your future plans justifying the current behaviorFor example, if you plan to start eating healthy next month, you believe you can binge eat till then. You find yourself worthy of a treat because you assume you will burn all the calories soon.When you make a plan to stop a bad habit or cultivate a good habit, you believe you can over-indulge in bad behavior until you begin.
The future plan of adhering to good behavior turns into a license to indulge in bad behavior right now.
36 comments:
What is it called if you think bad behavior is actually good behavior and good behavior is actually bad behavior? If there's a word for that it would definitely apply to republicans.
Democrats are the Deep State Eichmann's of bureaucracy....
They are the truth tellers combating the republican Eichmanns trying to kill people with disinformation.
Gain of Function Fauci isn't a Republican. :)
I saw the a-hole Randy Paul accuse Fauci of lying to Congress, but Fauci denied it and stood by what he said. The "gain of function" BS is part of your tinfoil hatted conspiracy that says Fauci is (in part) responsible for the pandemic. When the truth is that Dotard Donald is responsible. For pulling our people from China (the ones on the ground that could have caught this early) and then ignoring and downplaying the pandemic. As he CONFIRMED to Bob Woodward.
FactCheck.org: An article published in Nature Medicine in March 2020 said that the virus likely originated through "natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer", or "natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer". The researchers, who analyzed genomic data, said SARS-CoV-2 "is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus". While they said an accidental laboratory release of the naturally occurring virus can’t be ruled out, they said they "do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible".
FYI, the disinformation I was referring to was BS like I posted about on my blog. Lies that very low IQ imbeciles such as Mystere believe (the whole pandemic is a hoax perpetrated to kill people with a fake vaccine that is actually poison).
Another example of dangerous disinformation would be the video you linked to in response to my post. If you believe the disinformation contained in the video (and that the vaccine is "totally unnecessary"), why would you (as you claimed) get the shot? Also remember that it was the Dotard administration that approved the emergency use authorization.
btw, I don't know about all the disinformation presented in the video, but I do know that the use of hydroxychloroquine re covid has been debunked. But you have GOT to keep saying it does work. Because your king, Doktor Dotard, pushed it.
The CDC lies and phony data manipulations continue...
CDC lies and phony data manipulations = tinfoil hat nuttery.
Yes, that describes Fauci all right.
It describes you.
Re the Malcolm Gladwell video...
"Some of my best friends are Jews".
Same as, "I have Black friends".
My conclusion? The moral licensing effect explains republicans. You (as per a previous comment) accept Black people who you work with who are smarter than you. Which gives you the moral license to accept the racist theories of Charles Murray. You can't be racist (or misogynist) because you praise people like Kim Klacik and Candace Owens.
Dotard Donald has Black (token) friends. Black tokens spoke at the RNC. Republicans: The Moral Licensing Effect Run Amok!
From your description then, racism isn't a problem because we treat African-Americans all as individuals.
Clearly your treatment as African Americans as individuals gives you moral license to discriminate against them as a group. There are a few good ones (your tokens), but as a whole Blacks are less intelligent, more criminally inclined and *insert racist stereotype here*.
It's not Republicans trying to outlaw menthol cigarettes.
lol!
I'm certainly not going to get my panties in a wad if I hear that the arrest rate for AA's is in excess of the demographic participation and then start blaming everyone but the criminals for it.
That's interesting that you wear panties. Do you also wear a bra?
If I did, t would be called a 'bro'.
Oh look, it appears as though not-your-sockpuppet "Thought Criminal" agrees with you about menthol cigarettes. Apparently this is an aspect of Black culture you don't feel like criticizing. Why not? My guess is that it's because Black Democrats are onboard re the ban. A fact that runs contrary to your "White Democrats infantilize Blacks" BS narrative.
No, I don't feel a need to outlaw cigarettes to protect anyone, black, white, brown, or purple.
I trust that black people are responsible enough to make their own decisions whether or not to smoke cigarettes.
So, re that trial you said you were a jurist on, your vote was "not guilty"? Because entrepreneurial Blacks should be able to sell crack to customers who should be able to decide for themselves if they want to do crack?
Nope, I voted guilty because doctors have intellectual property rights vis "drug dispensing" that cannnot be infringed. If people want crack, they'll have to visit their doctors and downgrade to fentanyl.
Slavoj Zizek has a prescription for the cocaine he sniffs?
That's a symptom of his hysteria. Zizek's got lots of movement disorders.
Q: What is your most unappealing habit?
Ž:The ridiculously excessive tics of my hands while I talk.
At least it's not tardive dyskinesia.
Is it proper to celebrate Juneteenth with fried chicken and watermelon?
Grape soda?
Grape soda?
You told me he uses cocaine.
That's certainly the rumour, despite his repeated denials.
Do you deny cocaine use... or do you admit it?
I don't believe Zizek uses cocaine.
I think he may recycle rich people snot tho 😋
I was referring to your personal use of cocaine. You certainly exhibit the paranoia. Anyway, according to you that was the reason for the constant sniffing.
Hey, if you don't understand sarcasm in context, don't blame me.
Right. "Sarcasm" explains the constant sniffing. I say his support of Dotard is explained by brain damage from abusing cocaine.
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