Licensed to Lie: Evidence for Moral Licensing in Persuasive Communication Contexts

Why do people feel entitled to do bad things to serve a moral cause, and how do observers perceive these actors? Moral licensing theory suggests that people’s past moral actions entitle them to transgress without guilt (Monin & Miller, 2001) while prompting observers to excuse their transgressions (Effron & Monin, 2010). Thus, people obtain moral licenses by recalling their past good deeds. Still unclear, however, is whether attitudes such as strong moral convictions could serve as moral licenses. My research extends moral licensing theory by examining this possibility. Why might strong moral convictions serve as moral licenses? Having a strong moral conviction may provide a sufficient boost in moral self-regard (Monin & Jordan, 2009), which would license engagement in future immoral action in the name of the moralized cause. Moreover, observers who share a strong (vs. weak) moral conviction with a target may be more willing to excuse her transgressions because the target’s moral conviction is seen as noble and therefore deserving pardon. Across two studies, I tested these hypotheses by tempting participants to lie for a noble cause and measuring their evaluations of political figures who lie for that same cause. My hypotheses were partially supported. People who received a traditional moral license (vs. no license) were more likely to lie regardless of their moral conviction for the issue (Study 1). However, moral convictions shaped people’s evaluations of others: People who supported a target’s attitude with strong (vs. weak) moral conviction licensed her lies for that cause (Study 2). This research suggests that moral licensing occurs in persuasive communication contexts, and strong moral convictions sometimes serve as moral licenses. Results may elucidate the pervasiveness of deceptive moral claims in American politics, and support future work to decrease the likelihood that individuals accept or propagate deceptive moralized claims.