The Influence of Visual Perspective on Moral Licensing Effect

Abstract This study examined how visual perspective affected the moral licensing effect. It was hypothesized that participants would act less morally when a moral behavior was recalled or imagined with a first-person perspective, whereas the effect would reverse in the third-person perspective condition. Participants recalled (Study 1) or imagined (Study 2 and 3) either a moral or an immoral/a neutral behavior, with either one of the two visual perspectives. The behavioral intentions of different subsequent moral behaviors as well as a real donating behavior were measured. All experiments found the licensing effect in the first-person perspective conditions but mixed results in the third-person perspective conditions. Moreover, the proposed mediation of construal level was not supported.