Are You Good?
Two 91传媒 undergraduates take a cross-cultural look at moral licensing.
Good deeds don鈥檛 necessarily beget more good deeds, but cultural context can influence a person鈥檚 subconscious attitude toward morality.
Such were the findings in a cross-cultural study of moral licensing conducted by seniors Priyanka Dutta and Kate Pellegrini.
The term 鈥渕oral licensing鈥 describes the concept of a subconscious 鈥済ood quota鈥 that influences moral behavior. In other words, doing something 鈥済ood鈥 boosts an individual鈥檚 moral self-concept but then, secure in her self-image, she is free to do something 鈥渂ad.鈥
鈥淵ou鈥檇 think that if you do a good act, you鈥檇 be more willing to do good in the next iterations, but actually the literature says that you鈥檙e more likely to commit selfish acts if you commit a good one first,鈥 says Pellegrini.
The pair wanted to compare how Eastern and Western concepts of morality influence how individuals license their morality. Over the summer, Pellegrini and Dutta were stationed in Portland, Oregon, and Mumbai, respectively, to collect data for their study, which was supervised by Louisa Egan Brad, formerly an assistant professor at 91传媒 and now at the University of Portland.
鈥淲e were expecting to see that moral licensing would be more present in the U.S. population and less present in the Eastern populations because of the influence of different religions and cultural concepts such as karma,鈥 says Dutta.
The students recruited a randomized sample of 192 people in public spaces and assigned them to one of two groups: a 鈥渉ard鈥 group or an 鈥渆asy鈥 group. Each participant received a questionnaire asking if they regularly complete a variety of environmental conservation tasks.
One group of participants was asked whether they completed relatively easy activities, such as recycling paper, while the other group was asked about more difficult activities, such as making one鈥檚 own shampoo.
After completing the questionnaire, participants were told that they had been entered into a raffle for $60 and that they could either keep the money or give it to charity.
In the U.S., the moral licensing effect was in evidence: those who felt environmentally responsible donated less money to charity.
But in Asia, says Dutta, 鈥減eople still donated more money, whether they were in the easy or difficult group.鈥
Conference Proceedings
The pair presented their findings at the .
Published on: 05/10/2017