Letting People Off the Hook: When Do Good Deeds Excuse Transgressions?

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin - Tập 36 Số 12 - Trang 1618-1634 - 2010
Daniel A. Effron1, Benoît Monin2
1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
2Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Tóm tắt

Three studies examined when and why an actor’s prior good deeds make observers more willing to excuse—or license—his or her subsequent, morally dubious behavior. In a pilot study, actors’ good deeds made participants more forgiving of the actors’ subsequent transgressions. In Study 1, participants only licensed blatant transgressions that were in a different domain than actors’ good deeds; blatant transgressions in the same domain appeared hypocritical and suppressed licensing (e.g., fighting adolescent drug use excused sexual harassment, but fighting sexual harassment did not). Study 2 replicated these effects and showed that good deeds made observers license ambiguous transgressions (e.g., behavior that might or might not represent sexual harassment) regardless of whether the good deeds and the transgression were in the same or in a different domain—but only same-domain good deeds did so by changing participants’ construal of the transgressions. Discussion integrates two models of why licensing occurs.

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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Tập 36 Số 12

1618-1634

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