How people evaluate individuals who act morally prior to acting immorally: An examination of developmental change in moral evaluation, social preference, and prediction of moral behaviors

Abstract

Recent studies have enthusiastically examined the developmental origin of moral self-licensing, which is a tendency to act immorally after acting morally. However, it has not been considered enough how children evaluate personality traits of individuals who show moral licensing behavior and whether there is any developmental change in this evaluation. This study examined the developmental change in moral evaluation, social preference, and prediction of moral behaviors for moral licensing characters as well as moral or immoral characters. In total, 36 5- and 6-year-old children, 36 7- and 8-year-old children, and 58 university students participated in the study. The results revealed that 7- and 8-year-olds and adults evaluated moral licensing characters as more moral and likable than those who behave immorally, unlike 5- and 6-year-olds, who did not distinguish between the immoral and moral licensing characters. Importantly, 7- and 8-year-olds judged the moral licensing character as neutral in both moral evaluation and judgment of social preference, suggesting that they thought the immoral behavior was canceled out owing to prior moral behavior in the moral licensing character. However, adults still judged the moral licensing character as immoral and dislikable. Moreover, children’s prediction of moral behavior for all characters showed the same tendency as moral evaluation, whereas adults’ prediction was slightly different from their moral evaluation. Taken together, our findings revealed that the evaluation of individuals who show moral licensing behavior changed developmentally, and a moral licensing effect was found when evaluating others’ moral traits from around 7 or 8 years of age.