幼児におけるモラルライセンシング効果の検討

Past moral behavior sometimes discourages subsequent moral behavior and allows for subsequent immoral behavior. This is known as the moral licensing effect. Although most previous research on moral licensing has focused on adults, a few studies have also examined children. The present study conducted three experiments to examine whether moral licensing effects can occur in preschool children. In each experiment, moral licensing was manipulated by different prosocial behavioral experiences (Experiment 1: resource allocation, Experiment 2: prosocial game task, Experiment 3: recall of past experiences), and its effects on cheating behavior (Experiment 1), prosocial behavior (Experiment 2), and self-control behavior (Experiment 3) were examined. In Experiment 1, the proportion of cheating did not differ significantly between conditions. In other words, there was no moral licensing effect on cheating. In Experiment 2, the proportion of prosocial allocation increased in the licensing condition as compared to the non-licensing condition. This result is inconsistent with previous findings of moral licensing effects. We were unable to test for differences in self-regulatory behavior between conditions in Experiment 3 because all children were able to wait until the time limit to eat. Across three experiments, we were unable to provide evidence that the moral licensing effect can occur in preschool children. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.