The target of harm/help and its effect on moral credits.

Abstract

Moral licensing and moral cleansing are phenomena illustrating that people’s behaviours are due to an inflation or deflation of their self-concepts following a moral act or a transgression respectively. Building on research on these two moral self-regulation processes, this paper sought to find out if these two phenomena are moderated by reciprocity towards the target at which their initial behaviour was directed. It was predicted that reciprocity would be a moderator but results yielded were not significant and therefore not conclusive.