Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / When the #MeToo movement hit its height, many of the powerful figures who were accused of harassment were people who had been previously seen as virtuous (Stockdale, Bell, Crosby, & Berdahl, 2019). The present study investigated how embodied power influenced sexual harassment (SH) judgments by manipulating the initiator to embody responsibility-focused, or self-focused power (compared to a control), and whether moral licensing, operationalized through moral crediting and moral credentialing, would mediate relations between power embodiment and SH judgments. Participants were 376 adults (42% female) residing in the U.S. who were recruited through Mturk. Moral crediting was significantly higher for perpetrators described as embodying responsibility-focused power, compared to a control condition (no power cues), which in turn was higher than perpetrators described as embodying self-focused power. Moral crediting was positively related to false accusations, SH severity (opposite of predictions), and severity of punishment. Additionally, there were gender differences in moral crediting such that the effects of power-embodiment on moral crediting were stronger for women than for men, though both were significant. Taken together, the findings of this study indicate that some initiators evade censure as their actions are seen as less severe when others believe them to have embodies responsibility-focused power. This should serve as an indication that SH is not always done by “bad actors”, but by those who appear to be virtuous. These findings should inform future SH policies, research, and training.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Feeling powerful or possessing power over someone is often shown in the sexual harassment literature as an antecedent. Indeed, power can be construed in a self-focused manner or in a responsibility-focused manner. Tost (2015) theorized that powerholders who construe their power as responsibility should then act for the benefit of others. However, a recent study by Stockdale, Gilmer, and Dinh (2019) found the opposite effect. Specifically, they found that priming responsibility-focused power increased the intention to sexually harass, speculating that priming such powers may have created a “moral license” (Miller & Effron, 2010) to engage in sexual harassment. The purpose of the present study is to extend their findings by examining the role of moral licensing. I hypothesize that participants who are in the responsibility-focused power priming condition will engage in sexual harassment proclivities through a serial mediation of communal feelings and moral licensing (moral crediting and moral credentialing). Results confirm that communal feelings and moral crediting serially mediate the relationship between responsibility-focused power and sexual harassment proclivities. The hypothesized role of moral credentialing was not supported. Findings in this study provides a potential explanation for the paradoxical findings of responsibility-focused power in Stockdale et al. (2019)’s study. This study also emphasizes the importance of understanding responsibility-focused power in sexual harassment indices and the potential the ironic effects of having such power via moral crediting.

<p>When the #MeToo movement hit its height, many of the powerful figures who were accused of harassment were people who had been previously seen as virtuous (Stockdale, Bell, Crosby, & Berdahl, 2019). The present study investigated how embodied power influenced sexual harassment (SH) judgments by manipulating the initiator to embody responsibility-focused, or self-focused power (compared to a control), and whether moral licensing, operationalized through moral crediting and moral credentialing, would mediate relations between power embodiment and SH judgments. Participants were 376 adults (42% female) residing in the U.S. who were recruited through Mturk. Moral crediting was significantly higher for perpetrators described as embodying responsibility-focused power, compared to a control condition (no power cues), which in turn was higher than perpetrators described as embodying self-focused power. Moral crediting was positively related to false accusations, SH severity (opposite of predictions), and severity of punishment. Additionally, there were gender differences in moral crediting such that the effects of power-embodiment on moral crediting were stronger for women than for men, though both were significant. Taken together, the findings of this study indicate that some initiators evade censure as their actions are seen as less severe when others believe them to have embodies responsibility-focused power. This should serve as an indication that SH is not always done by “bad actors”, but by those who appear to be virtuous. These findings should inform future SH policies, research, and training.</p>

Abusive supervision research has found that subordinates engage in deviance following abuse despite the negative consequences of doing so. Why do individuals engage in deviance despite the expected sanctions? To explain this relationship a model is proposed based on moral licensing theory wherein the relationship of abusive supervision and subsequent negative voluntary work behaviors will be moderated by the extent to which subordinates performed positive voluntary work behaviors. In Study 1, I demonstrate that high organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) as rated by subordinates’ significant others significantly increased the relationship between abusive supervision and organizational deviance, while the relationship was not significant at low levels of significant other rated OCB. In Study 2 I replicate and extend this finding using time-lagged data, finding that in the context of abusive supervision, OCB directed at the supervisor at day t significantly increased the incidence of counterproductive work behaviors directed at the supervisor and organization at day t + 1. Implications for moral licensing and abusive supervision research are discussed.

Moral licensing is a cognitive bias, which enables individuals to behave immorally without threatening their self-image of being a moral person. We investigate this phenomenon in a cross-cultural marketing context. More specifically, this paper addresses the questions (i) how big moral licensing effects typically are and (ii) which factors systematically influence the size of this effect. We approach these questions by conducting a meta-analysis and a meta-regression. Based on a random effects model, the point estimate for the generalized effect size Cohen's d is 0.319 (SE = 0.046; N = 106). Results of a meta-regression advance theory, by showing for the first time that both cultural background and type of comparison explain a substantial amount of the total variation of the effect size of moral licensing. Marketing practitioners wishing to capitalize on moral licensing effects should therefore consider cross-cultural difference, since marketing measures building on this effect may lead to different revenues in different countries.

Bakgrund: Som en del av den digitala utvecklingen har e-handeln vuxit med stormsteg de senaste åren. Parallellt med denna utveckling finns det ett växande fokus på miljömässig hållbarhet, vilket gör att e-handeln, ur miljösynpunkt, framstår som negativ. Leveranserna för de varor som köps på internet bidrar exempelvis till en stor mängd koldioxidutsläpp. Både företag och konsumenter delar därför ett ansvar att motverka negativ miljöpåverkan som en konsekvens av exempelvis konsumtion. Syfte: Syftet har varit att undersöka svenska e-handelskonsumenters val av och betalningsvilja för ett klimatkompenserat leveransalternativ. Hänsyn har även tagits till konsumenternas grad av miljöengagemang för att avgöra om det har en avgörande betydelse för relationen mellan valet av klimatkompenserat leveransalternativ och betalningsviljan. Tillsammans med syftet utformades fyra frågeställningar med tillhörande hypoteser. Metod: Tvärsnittsstudien omfattades av en enkätundersökning som genomfördes online. Urvalet har varit studenter och totalt samlades 195 användbara enkätsvar in. Regressionsanalyser, inklusive en multipel regressionsanalys med en moderator, har genomförts för att testa hypoteserna. Resultat: Resultatet gav stöd för samtliga hypoteser. 1) E-handelskonsumenter som väljer ett klimatkompenserat leveransalternativ har en större betalningsvilja för ett sådant leveransalternativ. 2) Miljöengagerade e-handelskonsumenter är mer benägna att välja ett klimatkompenserat leveransalternativ. 3) Miljöengagerade e-handelskonsumenter är mer benägna att betala för ett klimatkompenserat leveransalternativ. 4) Graden av miljöengagemang har en modererande effekt på relationen mellan e-handelskonsumenters val av ett klimatkompenserat leveransalternativ och betalningsviljan för ett sådant leveransalternativ. Slutsats och bidrag: Resultatet från studien har kunnat anknytas till teorier från tidigare forskning, där några av dessa berör lågkostnads-/högkostnadsmodellen, självkontrollkapacitet, ekoskuld samt moral licensing. Studien bidrar med insikter på relationen som miljöengagerade e-handelskonsumenter har till klimatkompenserade leveransalternativ. Det är tänkbart att resultatet kan användas av e-handelsföretag och distributörer när det kommer till hur de arbetar med hållbara leveransalternativ och vad som erbjuds e-handelskonsumenter. I och med att studiens resultat tyder på att e-handelskonsumenter, främst de som är miljöengagerade, är villiga att välja samt betala för att få ett klimatkompenserat leveransalternativ, är det därför viktigt att ett sådant alternativ går att välja. / Background: As part of digital development, e-commerce has grown very much the recent years. In parallel with this development, there is a growing focus on environmental sustainability, which makes e-commerce, from an environmental point of view, appear negative. For example, the deliveries of the goods purchased online contribute to a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, both companies and consumers share a responsibility to counteract negative environmental impacts as a consequence of, for example, consumption. Purpose: The purpose has been to examine Swedish e-commerce consumers' choice of and willingness to pay for a climate-compensated delivery option. Consideration has also been taken of consumers' degree of environmental commitment to determine whether it is of decisive importance for the relationship between the choice of climate-compensated delivery option and the willingness to pay. Together with the purpose, four research questions were formulated with associated hypotheses. Methodology: The study was conducted with an online survey. The sample was students and a total of 195 useful questionnaire responses were collected. Regression analyzes, including a multiple regression analysis with a moderator, were performed to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results provided support for all hypotheses. 1) E-commerce consumers who choose a climate-compensated delivery alternative have a greater willingness to pay for such a delivery alternative. 2) Environmentally committed e-commerce consumers are more likely to choose a climate-compensated delivery alternative. 3) Environmentally committed e-commerce consumers are more likely to pay for a climate-compensated delivery alternative. 4) The degree of environmental commitment has a moderating effect on the relationship between e-commerce consumers' choice of a climate-compensated delivery alternative and the willingness to pay for such a delivery option. Conclusion and contribution: The results from the study could be linked to theories from previous research, where some of these concern the low-cost / high-cost model, self-control capacity, eco-debt, and moral licensing. The study contributes insights into the relationship that environmentally committed e-commerce consumers have with climate-compensated delivery options. It is possible that the results can be used by e-commerce companies and distributors when it comes to how they work with sustainable delivery options and what is offered to e-commerce consumers. As the results of the study indicate that e-commerce consumers, mainly those who are environmentally committed, are willing to choose and pay for a climate-compensated delivery option, it is therefore important that such an alternative can be chosen. (This paper is written in Swedish.)

Opportunities for aggression occur frequently and unpredictably, but little research to our knowledge has investigated the impact of the mere presence of multiple opportunities on aggression over time. Two studies, one with a Canadian sample (163 participants) and one with an American sample (103 participants) were conducted to analyze the impact of the number of opportunities for aggression on justified and unjustified aggressive thoughts, behaviors, and motivations. Individually, these studies yielded the result that justified aggression remains stable over time, but that unjustified aggression decreases when an individual is given multiple opportunities. Combined, they indicated that justified aggression increased when participants had a second opportunity. Future research is proposed to understand the impact of moral licensing on aggression over time, and to understand why unjustified aggression occurs.

Two studies explored individual difference moderators of spillover. Positive spillover occurs when one prosocial behavior leads to an increase in subsequent prosocial behavior, whereas negative spillover or moral licensing occurs when one prosocial behavior leads to a decrease in prosocial behaviors. The moderators of interest were internal motivation, external motivation, and preference for consistency. It was predicted that those who exhibit high external motivation would demonstrate negative spillover, those who exhibit internal motivation would demonstrate positive spillover, and those with high preference for consistency would demonstrate positive spillover. Although these moderation predictions were not supported, Study 1 replicated previous work demonstrating moral licensing, or negative spillover. Participants who completed an initial non-prejudiced act later donated less money to a charity supporting racial equality than participants in the neutral control condition. The results of Study 2 demonstrated positive spillover. Participants who completed an initial pro-environmental act were more likely to help a local environmental organization compared to those who completed a neutral initial task. Future research is needed to understand the cause of the differing results, including measuring potential mediators in future studies.