The Influence Of Moral Recall And Moral Identity On Immoral Behavior

Moral licensing effect refers to that when individuals recall their previous moral behavior,they will allow themselves to do fewer moral behaviors or more immoral behaviors in the future.Moral identity has received extensive attention as an important influencing factor of the moral licensing effect.Previous studies have explored the relationship between moral identity and moral licensing effect and found that compared to the individuals with high moral identity,the individuals with low moral identity showed more immoral behaviors in the moral recall condition than in the immoral recall condition.However,because of the lack of a control condition in the experimental design,the result of this study could not verify the existence of the moral licensing effect or indicate whether it was due to moral recall that increased immoral behavior or immoral recall that decreased immoral behavior.Therefore,Study 1 will explore the effect of moral recall on immoral behavior to verify the existence of moral licensing effect by setting a control condition.Study 2 will explore the effect of moral recall and moral identity on immoral behavior based on Study 1,to clarify the relationship between moral identity and moral licensing effect.At the same time,some studies have shown that moral elevation can reduce individuals’ immoral behavior.Therefore,Study 3 will explore the effect of moral recall and moral elevation on immoral behavior of individuals with low moral identity,as an attempt to investigate the inhibitory effect of moral elevation on the moral licensing effect.Experiment 1 adopted a single factor experiment design between subjects and used the sequential behavior paradigm to explore the effect of moral recall on immoral behavior.The independent variable is the type of moral recall(moral recall versus neutral recall)and the dependent variable is immoral behavior.The results show that compared to the neutral recall group,subjects in the moral recall group had a significantly higher willingness to behave immorally,verifying the existence of the moral licensing effect.Experiment 2 adopted a 2(the type of moral recall: moral versus neutral)× 2(moral identity: high versus low)experiment design between subjects.The dependent variable is immoral behavior.The effect of moral recall and moral identity on immoral behavior was explored by using the sequential behavior paradigm.The results showed that under the condition of high moral identity,there was no significant difference between the moral recall group and the neutral recall group in the rate of committing immoral behavior.Under the condition of low moral identity,the rate of committing immoral behavior in the moral recall group was significantly higher than the neutral recall group,showing the moral licensing effect.Based on Experiment 2,experiment 3 focused on individuals with low moral identity.Experiment 3 adopts a 2(the type of moral recall: moral versus neutral)× 2(moral elevation: activated versus controlled)experiment design between subjects.The dependent variable is immoral behavior.The effect of moral recall and moral elevation on immoral behavior was explored by using the sequential behavior paradigm.The results showed that when the moral elevation was activated,there was no significant difference between moral recall group and neutral recall groupin the rate of committing immoral behavior.However,when the moral elevation was controlled,the rate of committing immoral behavior in the moral recall group was significantly higher than in the neutral recall group.This study draws the following conclusions through three experiments:(1)The type of moral recall influences immoral behavior.Compared with neutral recall,moral recall can lead to moral licensing effect.(2)The type of moral recall and moral identity interact to influence individuals’ immoral behavior.Individuals with high moral identity do not have moral licensing effect after moral recall,but individuals with low moral identity have moral licensing effect after moral recall.(3)Moral elevation can significantly reduce individuals’ moral licensing effect with the low moral identity.This study verified the existence of moral licensing effect,clarified the relationship between moral identity and moral licensing effect,found the inhibitory effect of moral elevation on moral licensing effect,enriched the theoretical study of moral licensing effect,provided empirical support for future interventions on moral licensing effect and provided some insights into moral education in reality.