道德心理许可研究述评

A Review of the Research on Moral Psychological Licensing

道德心理许可是指既往的道德行为让人觉得可以表达或做出可能会损害自己道德名誉的态度或行为。给予许可与被许可行为既可属于相同领域,也可属于不同领域,甚至观察者有时也会给予行为者以道德心理许可。道德信誉和道德证书是产生道德心理许可的两条独立路径。重要的个人认同和避免虚伪这两个因素可能阻碍许可的发生。未来还需要厘清自我许可与他人许可之间的关系,验证道德信誉和道德证书模型的一些基本假设,探讨道德心理许可的积极效应。

Moral psychological license may be defined as people＇s perception that they are permitted to take an action or express a thought without fear of discrediting themselves. We present evidence that good behavior in one domain can license otherwise-discrediting behavior in the same domain or an unrelated domain. Observers are sometimes willing to extend license to actors on the basis of the actors＇ behavioral history. The potential mechanisms behind licensing are moral credits and moral credentials which can be viewed as two independent routes. When one acts in domains that are relatively unimportant to one＇s identity or can avoid appearing hypocritical, one＇s behavioral history will liberate rather than constrain future behaviors. We also discuss remaining questions in the literature and propose avenues for future research, the questions including the relationship between self-licensing and person-licensing, verification fundamental assumptions of moral credits and moral credentials models, the desirable consequences of moral licensing.