[Professor Robert Prentice] Over the years we've all seen high-profile televangelists
and "family values" politicians involved in sex scandals.
You might also have noticed numerous cases of embezzlement by employees of charitable
organizations.
How is it that seemingly good people can act so unethically?
One factor is a psychological phenomenon known as moral equilibrium.
[Jeff] I wouldn’t say that I believe in Karma but it's something that society
kind of pushes on you.
Like if you do one good thing, then you're going to get something good in return.
But if you're bad, then Karma might come back around to get you.
The basic idea is that most of us want and indeed need to think of ourselves as good people.
We keep a sort of running scoreboard in our heads, comparing our mental image of ourselves
as good people to our actual behavior.
When we act in ways that don’t live up to our own ethical standards, we tend to feel bad
and we look for ways to make up for it.
So we might do some good deeds in order to restore balance to our internal scoreboard.
This is called moral compensation.
On the flip side, when we do something good, we add points to the plus side of our mental
scoreboard, and we then may give ourselves permission to fail to meet
our own ethical standards.
This is called moral licensing.
[Ellen] Earlier this semester I had a stats exam Monday night, and then I had
accounting homework due Tuesday morning.
And I just decided that I had had enough of BHP and I went home and watched Friends.
I justified it by telling myself that, "Oh we get to drop five homeworks anyway, and I usually
always do my homework, and I do it well."
Moral compensation and moral licensing are the two components of moral equilibrium.
Moral licensing is the scary one.
It is what allows TV evangelists, family values politicians, and people who work for charities
to start telling themselves how wonderful they are, and then to give themselves permission
to depart from their own ethical standards.
Importantly, these people don't even realize how their past actions are affecting their
current decisions.
[Todd] I would, you know, jokingly say to my friends, "Oh it’s okay, I mean I, you know,
I feed the homeless, I went and played with puppies this weekend.
Oh it’s okay, I mean, I can sleep in today."
One study asked two groups of people to write about themselves.
The first group was prompted to write about something they did that they were NOT proud of,
and the second group was asked to write about something they did that they WERE proud of.
Afterwards, both groups were asked to donate to charity or to volunteer.
The first group donated more to charity and volunteered more than the second group.
The first group - bad deeds fresh in their mind - was engaged in moral compensation.
The second group - focused on their own goodness - was practicing moral license.
There are at times when I notice myself feeling a high because I've done something good.
[Michael] It’s really easy when you’re feeling on top of the world and like you can
do no wrong, to then, not think things through and make the wrong decision.
[Robert] And that’s harder to recognize, I think, when you start to hit that slope
of going downhill, and doing things that maybe you shouldn’t be doing.
There are many more studies on moral equilibrium, and they all make the same point:
Don't get cocky!
Just when you're feeling especially good about yourself, you're most in danger of
giving yourself license to screw up.
[Pranitha] You can put yourself on a pedestal, or whatever, and accept that praise,
but don’t let it get to your head.
You really need to sit down when you’re not in an ethical dilemma and discover what
your ethical beliefs are and really hash it out with yourself.
The best friends I have right now are the people who tell me when I’m being a jerk
because everybody's a jerk sometimes.
I may do cool things, I may do great things, I may help people, but you know, it’s not
for me, it’s not for my benefit; it’s for the benefit of others.
And as long as you keep that in mind, you’re less likely to become cocky and become arrogant
and you know, build up your own ego, I think.