The Influence of Visual Perspective on Moral Licensing Effect

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.