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Most days, the world isn't a clear-cut, black-and-white kind of place.
大多数时候，世界并不是一个黑白分明的地方。
And that means that, sometimes, people you think are good do bad things.
也就是说，有时候，你所认为的好人会做一些坏事。
In fact, sometimes good people do bad things because they normally do good things.
事实上，好人有时候也会做坏事，因为他们通常都做好事。
This is what's known as moral licensing, also called self-licensing or moral self-licensing.
这就是所谓的道德许可，也称自我许可，或道德自我许可。
And while it sounds like it might not make a lot of sense,
虽然听起来可能不是很在理，
you might be more familiar with it than you would like to think.
但你可能比你想象的更熟悉它。
Moral licensing is basically what happens every time you decide that you deserve something because you have been good.
从根本上说，每次你认为你应该得到某样东西就会存在道德许可，因为你一直表现得很好。
When an action is morally ambiguous,
当一个行为在道义上模棱两可时，
your history of doing good things can make you feel like you can cut yourself some slack and grant yourself an exception.
以往做的善事会让你觉得你可以给自己一个例外。
Thankfully, those bad things aren't usually that bad.
值得庆幸的是，那些所谓的坏事通常没那么糟糕。
Like, maybe you got a ginormous waffle cone after your spin class
比如，你在上完旋转训练课程后得到了一个巨大的华夫饼，
or you bought those sweet new kicks that you can't really afford because you've done such a good job saving this month.
或者你买了那些你买不起的新鞋子，因为你这个月存了不少钱。
Look, you do you! We don't judge. Treat yourself!
听着，做你自己！不要判断，善待自己！
But moral licensing can undermine our ability to meet our goals.
但道德许可会削弱我们实现目标的能力。
And it also has an even more sinister side:
而且道德许可还有其更邪恶的一面：
It can cause people to give themselves permission to cheat or to be more prejudiced.
道德许可会让人们允许自己作弊，或者变得更有偏见。
So why do we do it, and what can we do, when necessary, to put a stop to it?
那么，我们为什么要这样做呢？必要的时候，我们能做些什么来阻止这种现象的发生呢?
Researchers have found that moral licensing shows up in a whole bunch of different situations.
研究人员发现，道德许可在很多不同的情况下都会出现。
One 2017 study found that employees who participated in a corporate social responsibility program were more likely to shirk their duties for their actual job,
2017年的一项研究发现，参加企业社会责任项目的员工更有可能在实际工作中逃避责任
because they felt like they were doing good.
因为他们觉得自己在做好事。
Similarly, participants who were part of a 2013 water conservation program did save water…
同样，参加2013年水资源保护计划的参与者确实节约了水资源……
but ended up using more electricity.
但最终消耗了更多的电。
Some of the examples, though, were a lot more… concerning.
然而，其中的某些例子更令人担忧。
For example, in one study, people who had a chance to disagree with some really sexist statements tended to favor a male candidate for a job over a female one later on.
例如，在一项研究中，那些反对性别歧视言论的人相较于女性求职者更青睐男性求职者。
And another paper with around 100 participants showed that those who endorsed Barack Obama were more likely to later make pro-white judgments.
另外一篇约100人受试者的论文显示，那些支持奥巴马的人后来更有可能支持白人。
It's worth pointing out that some meta-analyses have found that the strength of the evidence for moral licensing is due in part to a publication bias.
值得注意的是，一些元分析发现，道德许可的证据之所以很多，部分原因在于发表偏倚。
Interesting findings, after all, are more likely to get published than ones showing no effect.
毕竟，比起没有影响力的研究，有趣的研究更容易发表。
But even taking that into account, moral licensing still appears to be A Thing.
但即便考虑到这一点，道德许可似乎仍是一件事。
And it turns out you don't even have to do the good stuff to cut yourself slack later on.
事实证明，之后你甚至不需要做什么好事来放自己一马。
Like, one study found that participants who had imagined agreeing to help another student donated less money in a follow-up task than those who hadn't imagined doing anything nice.
比如，一项研究发现，那些想象过帮助其他学生的人后续的捐赠比那些没有想象过做任何好事的人要少。
Writing about yourself in generally positive terms, rather than recalling some specific incident of good behavior, also seems to do the trick.
用积极的语言来描述自己，而不是回忆一些做善事的特定事件，似乎也能起到作用。
And then there's moral cleansing, which is sort of the opposite of moral licensing.
然后是道德净化，这是道德许可的对立面。
When we're starting to feel like we don't come across as particularly moral,
当我们开始觉得自己道德不好的时候，
we'll do something to make ourselves feel or seem better.
我们会做一些让自己感觉更好或看起来更好的事情。
Like, in one study, participants were more likely to literally sanitize their hands after copying out a story about people doing some immoral stuff.
比如，在一项研究中，参与者在抄写了一个关于人们做不道德事情的故事后，更有可能真的会去洗手。
But all these different examples beg the question of how this mental arithmetic actually happens.
但所有这些不同的例子都提出一个问题——心算是如何产生的。
How do we decide when we can give ourselves some moral wiggle room?
我们什么时候能给自己一些道德回旋的空间呢?
So far, there are two models for how it might work: the moral credits model and the moral credentials model.
目前为止，有两种模型：道德信用模型和道德凭证模型。
In the moral credits model, good and bad behaviors are like credits and debits on a bank account.
在道德信用模型中，好的和坏的行为就像银行账户上的信誉和借贷一样。
If you do something good, then you have moral credit to spend on being naughty.
如果你做了好事，那么你就有道德信用去做不好的事。
In the moral credentials model, past behavior shapes your sense of who you are.
在道德凭据模型中，过去的行为塑造了你对自己的认识。
So in an ambiguous situation, where something might be bad but it could kind of go either way,
所以在模棱两可的情况下——有些可能的坏事（可能带来好的结果，也可能带来坏的结果）
you're more likely to decide that the bad thing really isn't that bad after all.
你更有可能认为这些坏事其实没那么糟。
Because you're for sure not the kind of person who does bad things.
因为你肯定不是那种做坏事的人。
Psychologists generally like these two models,
通常来说，这两个模型在心理学家那比较受欢迎，
but they can't say yet which of them is better at explaining moral licensing.
但还不能说哪一个模型更好地解释道德许可。
Part of the problem is that it might ultimately depend on other factors.
部分问题在于，道德许可最终可能取决于其它因素。
For instance, one 2013 study found that
例如，2013年的一项研究发现了
participants licensed certain immoral behaviors differently depending on the socioeconomic status of the person they were judging,
参与者依靠他们对人社会经济地位的判断来不同程度地允许某些不道德行为，
which is a whole different can of worms.
这是一个完全不同的研究。
But! There are some things we can say about moral licensing.
但是，关于道德许可，我们有些事情要说明。
Many psychologists believe that it's more likely to happen when the badness of the thing being licensed is more ambiguous.
许多心理学家认为，当被许可事情的坏处更加模糊时，这种情况更有可能发生。
And it's also not just about making others think we're good people.
这不仅仅是让别人觉得我们是好人。
It's also about how we think of ourselves.
这也关乎我们如何看待自己。
For instance, we'll let ourselves get away with bad behavior in front of an audience even if that audience doesn't know we're usually upstanding citizens.
例如，在观众面前我们会收起不良行为，即使观众知道我们通常不正直。
We also have some pretty good ideas about how to put the brakes on moral licensing.
我们还有一些好的方法来避免道德许可。
For the kind that interferes with you achieving your goals, reframing the way you think about those goals can help.
对于那些妨碍目标实现的事，你可以重新规划对这些目标的看法。
Psychologists suggest thinking of the first steps toward a goal as a commitment you're making, not just some pretty good progress so far.
心理学家建议，把迈向目标的第一步看作是你的承诺，而不仅仅是迄今为止很好的进步。
Because good progress can allow us to let ourselves slack off.
因为进步会让我们懈怠。
And for everything else? Just knowing that it's a bias can help us counter it.
至于其它？只要知道这是一种偏见，我们就能克服。
It lets us pay more attention to when we let things slide and why.
更加注意什么时候以及为什么不要有道德许可
And that can help us make sure that we're doing the stuff we're doing for reasons that we're okay with.
这可以帮助确保我们对自己所做的事情都能接受。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看心理科学秀节目。
If you would like to learn more about bias and the tendencies that shape people,
如果你想了解更多关于偏见和人类趋向的问题，
you might want to watch our episode on implicit bias, and whether or not everybody is a little bit racist.
你可能想观看我们关于隐性偏见，以及每个人是否都有种族歧视的节目内容。
Buckle up.
做好准备哦
