Green consumption does not make people cheat: Three attempts to replicate moral licensing effect due to pro-environmental behavior

Urban, J., Bahník, Š., Braun Kohlová, M. 2019. Green consumption does not make people cheat: Three attempts to replicate moral licensing effect due to pro-environmental behavior, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 63, 139-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.01.011.

Abstract

A recent study (Mazar & Zhong, 2010) argued that green consumption triggers cross-domain moral licensing, which makes people engage in dishonest behavior. In two conceptual and one close replication of this study (total N = 1,274), we manipulated participants’ level of green consumption. Three different validated tasks, which allowed participants to cheat for monetary profit, were used to measure dishonesty in the three experiments. We found no licensing effect of green consumption on subsequent dishonesty. Thus, policies which make people engage in pro-environmental behavior are less likely to trigger cross-domain licensing than previously thought.

Contact

Charles University
Environment Centre
José Martího 407/2
160 00 Praha 6
Czech Republic

tel.: +420 220 199 460

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

How to find us

Personal data protection

Information about data protection

Data Protection Officer
Mgr. Jan Jindra

E-mail: gdpr@cuni.cz
Phone: +420 224 491 740