Abstract: Moral licensing theory posits that people who initially behave in a moral way can later display behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic. It has been suggested that moral licensing can be interpreted as part of a larger moral self-regulation framework. The idea is that internal balancing of moral self-worth and the costs associated with pro-social behavior determine whether one will display (im)moral behavior. Therefore, moral licensing like a cognitive bias, which enables individuals to behave immorally without threatening their self-image of being a moral person. Previous research has demonstrated that the activation of predictive inferences can be affected both by the immediately preceding context and by the information contained in an earlier portion of a passage. The goal of this study was to test whether the moral licensing effect occurs in the moral predictive inferences. The Chinese Personality Scale (QZPS) was used to assess the level of kindness. This study surveyed 460 college students. Then, 80 participants (40 people with high scores and 40 people with low scores) were selected from this sample based on their kindness scores.The experiment was a 2 (Personality Type: high-kindness, low-kindness) × 2 (Positive Moral-self: priming, no priming) × 4 (Story Type: rewards for one’s virtuous deeds, hypocrisy, morality, retribution for one’s virtuous deeds) mixed design. The Personality Type was between-subjects variable, the Positive Moral-self and Story Type were within-subjects variables. Three eye-movement indicatiors (first pass readingtime, total fixation duration, total regression counts) were recorded when participants read the “last sentence” in each type story. The experimental process was as follows: (1) participants were first asked to read 6 stories (4 moral types, 2 neutral types) and eye-movements were recorded; (2) then they were asked to wrote a paragragh about positive moral events; (3) last, they were asked to read 6 stories that matched task 1 and eye-movements were recorded. The results generally showed that the main effect of Positive Moral-Self was significant, namely, when participants were under the Priming condition, their expectations to positive moral results were significantly weakened, their expectations to negative moral results were significantly enhanced, and the kindness trait could not inhibit these tendencies. Specifically, (1) with regard to first pass reading time, all participants showed longer time to “hypocrisy” story and shorter time to “retribution for one’s virtuous deeds” story under Priming condition than that of under No Priming condition; (2) with regard to total fixation duration, all participants showed longer duration to “rewards for one’s virtuous deeds” story and shorter duration to “retribution for one’s virtuous deeds” under Priming condition (vs. No Priming condition); (3) with regard to total regression counts, all participants showed more regression counts to “rewards for one’s virtuous deeds” story and “moral” story and less regression counts to “hypocrisy” story and “retribution for one’s virtuous deeds” story under Priming condition (vs. No Priming condition). This study demonstrates that positive moral self-priming generates a moral licensing effect on moral expectancy, and positive personality traits cannot effectively inhibit the moral licensing effect in information processing. Our findings suggest that individuals relax their strivings and decrease their moral behavior after fortifying their moral selves. Thus, stable and consistent moral behavior may not bean accurate picture of people’s behavior patterns. Therefore, as the Chinese tradition emphasizes, moral cultivation is a careful and prudent activity, which needs moral efforts from time to time.

Key words: moral licensing effect, positive moral-self, predictive inference, eye movements

摘要： 元分析表明道德许可效应具有一定的普遍性。为了直接检验这种效应作为认知偏差是否影响道德信息预期推理，本研究结合眼动追踪技术，比较了高/低善良被试在启动积极道德自我前后，阅读道德主题故事结果句的差异。阅读速度的眼动指标表明，启动主效应显著，积极道德结果的预期显著减弱，消极道德结果的预期显著增强，而且善良特质不能抑制这些倾向。这表明启动积极道德自我，会导致道德材料阅读加工速度产生许可效应。

关键词: 道德许可效应, 积极道德自我, 预期推理, 眼动