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Moral Self-Licensing and the Direct Touch Effect

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  • Markus Sass
  • Joachim Weimann

Abstract

Repeated experiments with a time span of one week between repetitions are used in order to test two related hypotheses. The first is the moral self-licensing effect, which describes peo-ple’s tendency to allow themselves to act more selfishly on the back of previous prosocial or selfless behavior. The second is the direct touch effect, which describes the difference be-tween experiences perceived directly by the senses and those perceived in a more hypothetical or abstract way. As games in which both effects can be detected we use the standard trust game and the mutual gift-giving game. Preferences were elicited by the strategy method and both games were played with and without feedback information between the waves. In both games, the moral self-licensing effect as well as the direct touch effect could be observed. Fi-nally, we use a solidarity game to check whether these effects also determine behavior in situ-ations with a different social norm. We find that this is not the case.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Sass & Joachim Weimann, 2015. "Moral Self-Licensing and the Direct Touch Effect," CESifo Working Paper Series 5174, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5174
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5174.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mekvabishvili, Rati & Mekvabishvili, Elguja & Natsvaladze, Marine & Sirbiladze, Rusudan & Mzhavanadze, Giorgi & Deisadze, Salome, 2023. "Prosocial Behavior and the Individual Normative Standard of Fairness within a Dynamic Context: Experimental Evidence," MPRA Paper 116774, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Mar 2023.
    2. Frings, Oliver & Abildtrup, Jens & Montagné-Huck, Claire & Gorel, Salomé & Stenger, Anne, 2023. "Do individual PES buyers care about additionality and free-riding? A choice experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    3. Markus Sass & Joachim Weimann, 2015. "The Peculiar Power of Pairs," CESifo Working Paper Series 5246, CESifo.
    4. Weimann Joachim, 2015. "Die Rolle von Verhaltensökonomik und experimenteller Forschung in Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Politikberatung," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 16(3), pages 231-252, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    trust game; moral self-licensing effect; direct touch effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games

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