Moral Licensing, and Why It's So Hard to Be a Saint

Does a good deed "pay off" a bad deed? A lot of people view their actions this way, says Scotty Hendricks. 

We’ve all done it, reminded ourselves that we have been good before we do something bad. Perhaps just before we eat something a bit too fattening, buy that excessive luxury, or don’t giving a dollar to charity at the store we simply remind ourselves, “It’s okay, I was good earlier”. It’s so common, Subway ran an ad campaign on it in the '90s. The logic being: come on, admit it, you were good earlier, so doing something questionable (like eating at Subway) doesn’t really count.

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Moral licensing self licensing morality guilt political correctness racism sexism

Malcolm Gladwell: "Trump Will Be in Jail Within a Year"

Malcolm Gladwell does a post-mortem of the U.S. presidential election, speaking to issues of sexism and moral licensing, and makes a bold prediction. 

 

President-elect Donald Trump following a meeting in the Oval Office November 10, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

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Malcolm Gladwell Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Election president elect jail elitism sexism moral licensing criminal charges election coverage