Moral licensing and being conscious of your subconscious ledger

It is my goal to use current research to investigate how we can use science to help us achieve what we want. This work will inform the development of an app which helps individuals achieve their goals and choose their behaviours instead of having them engineered by our environments. My dreams of the app can be found here.

In this blog, I explore the idea of moral licensing – a mental scale we use to allow us to choose more indulgent options when we have been good.

For clarity, text which is Dark Orange is my attempt at presenting the information from the research paper, the rest you have me to blame. You can find full details of the research paper at the bottom of the post.

Why your good work could mean you make worse decisions in the future.

Research published in November 2024 looked at the extent of the moral licensing effect on whether individual pro-environmental intentions translate to actual behaviour². The moral licensing effect describes how our previous good decisions and behaviours give us more scope to make less virtuous acts in the future¹.

The thinking behind why this occurs is it allows us to hold an image in our mind of who we are, even when we make specific decisions which may not support this narrative; it is a way to rationalise behaviour which doesn’t fit with our self-concept. So when we have done good stuff it is easier to rationalise behaviour we are more attracted to even if it isn’t in our best interest. A worked example could be: imagine you are someone who runs 5 days a week, you may therefore see yourself as someone who exercises and is fit. This then allows you to enjoy a couple of beers in the weekend, because you are fit and therefore having some drinks can be balanced. This is the crux behind moral licensing, where our previous good deeds excuses us for poor future decisions without disrupting our self image of ourselves. It also allows us to forgive ourself for behaviours which we know aren’t in the best interest of us achieving our long term outcomes.

Licensing is just a tool through which we allow our current self not to feel bad for letting that future self down.

Uzma Khan

Note: There is another psychological effect in our self concept of ourselves, which works in inverse the moral licensing; moral cleansing effect explains the impulse to act virtuously following behaviours which violate social norms or misconduct. This describes the need to do good to cleanse our soul, such as politician who is caught having an affair and then atones through their faith. So in moral cleansing the bad behaviour increases the likelihood of good behaviour in the future, that is assuming you want to internally see yourself as good.

The danger of not knowing

The real risk isn’t that moral licensing exists, and that it allows it to hold a balanced perspective of ourselves, instead the risk is that this is happening subconsciously. Have you ever tried to eat well, and then have found yourself eating poorly after a good run, because you feel internally like you deserve it? This is the moral licensing in play. This is different from intentionally choosing to reward yourself, which obviously has benefits in behaviour change, instead it is subconsciously allowing something that you perhaps wouldn’t want to choose should you pause to think about it.

By allowing this moral licensing to occur without us being aware of it, we can end up going backwards in areas where we would rather be advancing forward.

Let’s look at what the researchers investigated

The research by Song et al. looked to understand what impacted pro-environmental attitude and pro-environmental behavioural intention. More interesting for the purpose of this post is the second part of the study which tried to understand the impact of moral licensing and how this helps or hinders turning intention into pro-environmental behaviours.

So were they right?

By looking at participants who had high vs low moral licensing the researchers were able to explore the extent of the impact this had on their behaviours. They were able to show that those who had high levels of moral licensing were less likely to act on their pro-environmental intentions. Conversely, those with low levels of moral licensing had a higher correlation between their intentions and their behaviours.

consumers with high levels of moral licensing tend to struggle with translating intentions into actions despite their strong intentions

Song, E. et al

The findings show that while intention for a behaviour is strongly correlated to the actual behaviour, this is modified by the level of moral licensing the individual expresses. That is, if you have the best intentions, moral licensing still has the potential to undo this.

So what? What use is this information?

This research highlights that the presence of moral licensing has a measurable impact on whether we are able to convert our intentions into action. Finding ways to counteract this moral licensing therefore will provide opportunities to reduce the gap between what you want to achieve and the actions you take to realise it. It may not be due to a lack of care, or misaligned purpose, but instead through the good work you have done, it might make these misgivings easier for your subconscious to permit.

Important to note is that in the study the level of moral licensing was assessed by posing statements such as “People practicing regular energy conservation may exceed average summer air conditioning usage”². So, in this study they were making the moral licensing explicit – those who felt that if you practice energy conservation you have earnt the right to use more air-conditioning in the summer. I reckon the fact that they made this explicit would have implications on the level of impact this would have the conversion of intention to action. Further there were many more that in the research had lower levels of moral licensing than those who had high levels by a factor of 4, and even those who had a “high level” of moral licensing had an average response to the statements closer to neither agreeing or disagreeing with the statement instead of agreeing. I would say this act of using these explicit statements reduced the unconscious nature of the moral licensing effect and makes it clear that the disconnect is not reasonable. However when we don’t make it material, through seeing it, reading it, or verbalising it we don’t need to confront this disconnect. Highlighting the value in being able to make the subconscious moral ledger we keep conscious. It allows us to change the narrative around the things which don’t align with our internal beliefs, and make decisions which align with our intentions.

If moral licensing allows us to subconsciously excuse actions that are not aligned with our intentions, but we won’t consciously associate those actions with being aligned with our goals, how does this impact our own feelings of our behaviours. In my mind there is two options:

I know of these two options which one I would rather, however to be honest I know which one I do. A worked example of this from my life – currently, I am trying to lose weight and generally be healthier. This involves running, going to the gym and trying to moderate my calorie intake. What I find is I run and go to the gym, this part is great! But then in the evening I find myself eating more than I should, and of the food I should be staying away from. I know part of my internal logic is that I have earnt a treat (something unhealthy) because I have been running (something healthy). This sounds fine if balanced, however I know in practice because it is a decision I’m not actively making, I end up eating more than I have earned, and end up feeling like a failure. An alternative to this would be to choose to reward myself, perhaps even with a treat, when I have built up enough healthy living, and making sure I view that reward as something to celebrate and feel proud of earning, instead of feeling guilty for succumbing to it. While this is a matter of changing a frame, it is clear how the two options could have a significant impact on how I feel about my progress and my ability to be successful, one which would make me feel like I’m a winner, the other where I’m bringing up the back of the pack, or perhaps not even realistically going to make the finish.

What can I do right now? ⏱️

1. Track good decisions – find a way, whether that is a diary, a tracking app (or Resolute) or a sticker chart to make it obvious of how you are acting in a way which is aligned with your intentions
2. Choose your rewards – if you can select rewards to spend your moral collateral on which are aligned with your goals, great, but even if they are not aligned by choosing them you can keep them proportional and make sure you have positive feelings when you get the reward instead of guilt
3. Reflect – to make moral licensing more obvious and less likely to make the decisions, reflect when you make choices that don’t align with your desired direction, what were you thinking or feeling before you ended up there, try 5 whys to get to the root cause and your underlying thinking.
4. Adjust – if your reward for saving $100 in the month, buying a $2000 phone to celebrate will not help you with your long-term goals. This is why choosing the reward is important, as if you let your subconscious select for you, it will likely focus on short term pleasure. However if you set the reward too low and it isn’t exciting enough for you, it will be unlikely to motivate you, so adjust to find your sweet spot.
5. Make your goals shorter – Shorter goals allow you to counter the licensing effect sooner, so if you were to eat unhealthily after a good day of eating you can get back on the horse the next day if your goals are daily, compared with a weekly goal where if it goes wrong on Friday, you may continue it for the whole weekend.
6. Have people hold you accountable – while when we do something virtuous it subconsciously lowers the standard we need to achieve, when others see us act virtuously, they expect to see that in the future and hence hold us to a higher standard.
7. Leave a comment and share your experiences with the moral licensing effect or any thoughts you have on how it can impact our ability to get what we want

What will this mean in Resolute? 📲

In Resolute I will be adding a ledger, so that you can quantify your moral capital through your goal aligned actions, and choose how to spend that capital in a way that makes you feel good and is proportional and continues you towards your goal. It will allow for adjustment of the “exchange rate” between goal actions and rewards for you to find your sweet spot. You will be able to journal and set goals at a frequency that works for you to help you get back on track and minimise impact counter to your goals.

Reference

1 Kahn, U., Dhar, R. (2006). Licensing Effect in Consumer Choice. Journal of Marketing Research, May, 259-266

2 Song, E., Lee, M., Park, J., Lee, H. (2024). Translating pro-environmental intention to behavior: The role of moral licensing effect. Sustainable Production and Comsumption, 52, 527-540.