Psychological License: When it is Needed and How it Functions

doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(10)43003-8

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

Volume 43, 2010, Pages 115-155

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(10)43003-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

Differences among people in the actions they take or the opinions they express do not always reflect differences in underlying attitudes, preferences, or motivations. When people differ in the extent to which they are psychologically licensed (i.e., feel able to act without discrediting themselves), they will act differently despite having similar attitudes, preferences, and motivations. Wanting to do something is not sufficient to spur action; one must also feel licensed to do it. We show that feeling licensed can liberate people to express morally problematic attitudes that those who do not feel licensed are inhibited from expressing. We also show that feeling one lacks license can inhibit people from expressing even morally nonproblematic attitudes that those who feel licensed are comfortable expressing. This chapter explores a wide range of social phenomena in which licensing plays a role and identifies a number of variables that grant or revoke psychological license.

Section snippets

Moral Licensing

A common reason people do not act upon or even express their attitudes is that they fear that doing so will signal to themselves and others something morally discrediting about the self. For example, people will refrain from expressing pride so as not to appear boastful, abstain from dessert so as not to feel like a glutton, or avoid violating a group norm so as not to be seen as a bad group member. But people's concern that a particular action will signal something discrediting about them does

Standing as License

Sometimes, people are concerned that their future actions will signal something morally questionable about themselves, and therefore they require what we have described as a moral license, obtained from their past behavior, in order to act comfortably. Other times, however, people feel uncomfortable expressing or acting upon attitudes that are not themselves morally problematic. Even when people are not concerned that an attitude will call their morality into question (e.g., portray them as a

Summary

People who hold different attitudes are not always equally willing to express or act upon them. One obvious reason for this is that some attitudes are more socially desirable than others: people will be reluctant to reveal unpopular or otherwise-discrediting attitudes. But it is not only the content of attitudes that affects people's comfort expressing them. Even people holding the same attitude can vary greatly in how comfortable they are expressing it. This chapter considered two reasons why

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Chapter Three - Psychological License: When it is Needed and How it Functions

Abstract

Section snippets

Moral Licensing

Standing as License

Summary

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

The Leadership Quarterly

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

The historical background of modern social psychology

The self-importance of moral identity

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

“Saying one thing and doing another”: Examining the impact of event order on hypocrisy judgments of others

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

The grammar of society: The nature and dynamics of social norms

A prayer for the city

Behavioral game theory

A justification-suppression of the expression and experience of prejudice

Psychological Bulletin

I'm not racist but … I'm racist: Blacks' and Whites' evaluations of disclaimers of prejudice

Reactions of restauranteurs to blacks and whites violating restaurant dress requirements

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science

A theory of cognitive dissonance

Goals as excuses or guides: The liberating effect of perceived goal progress on choice

Journal of Consumer Research

Subgoals as substitutes or complements: The role of goal accessibility

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Compliance without pressure: The foot-in-the-door technique

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

The presentation of the self in everyday life

Israel's ‘American problem'

New York Times

Who protests: Self-interest and White opposition to busing?

Journal of Politics

G.O.P. Consultant says he reported spitzer trysts in 2007

The New York Times

Conformity, status, and idiosyncrasy credit

Psychological Review

Criticizing groups from the inside and the outside: An identity perspective on the intergroup sensitivity effect

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

You can criticize because you care: Identity attachment, constructiveness, and the intergroup sensitivity effect

European Journal of Social Psychology

Licensing effect in consumer choice

Journal of Marketing Research

Where there is a way, there is a will? The effect of future choices on self-control

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Dynamics of self-regulation: How (un)accomplished goal actions affect motivation

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology