I'm working on a paper that will address this!

Long story short, unless they have a reason to signal being highly moral, on average it would be better to behave normatively. Being too moral can be bad! My coauthor Pat Barclay has a paper on this

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

8/8

Huge thanks to my co-authors Jisoo Jung, Chris Chinn, and Pat Barclay, to everyone who shared their data, and reviewers for helping make the paper stronger!! 💪🏻

Questions or comments? I’d love to hear them! 🧠💬

#OpenScience #MoralPsychology #MetaAnalysis #SocialPsych

7/
🌟This paper reframes moral licensing as a social effect—not a purely internal one based on self-regulation.

🌟And it shows how experimental methods can shape the effects we (dis)cover.

Check out preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

6/ This also helps explain when we might get #MoralLicensing v #MoralConsitency

➡️ When establishing a new rep to others, we may license

➡️ When on our own, may be more morally consistent

5/ ☠️This helps explain why many replications failed ☠️

➡️Recent moral licensing studies were online, where reputational cues are weak or absent 💻❌

➡️We need to be careful when moving social effects online!

⚠️Looked like the #ReplicationCrisis, but really it was methods! ⚠️

4/ 🤯 Why? Because reputation matters ✅

➡️ When others are watching, a moral rep can “buy” you leeway for a *slightly* less moral act (e.g., might not donate💰, but won’t got steal a 🚗)—without ruining your image

Online or unobserved? Licensing vanishes.

3/ 🌟In a meta-analysis (k = 115, N > 21,000):

Moral licensing effect is much stronger when people are observed!! 👀

➡️ Not observed: essentially no effect (Hedge’s g ≈ 0)
➡️ Explicitly observed: Med effect size (g = 0.51)

Bayesian analysis shows 9x more evidence for licensing when observed! 📈

2/ We advance that methods changes (moving lab studies online) have masked the effect because the effect is social!

➡️Explains failed online experiments
➡️ We test if the effect is interpersonal (social effect based on reputation) vs intrapsychic self-image)

2/ Shout out to the extraordinary organizing team for #EHBEA2025 ✒️🐧📝

@tvpollet.bsky.social
@jeannebovet.bsky.social
@francescadp.bsky.social
@amrotella.bsky.social
@gillianpepper.bsky.social
@mdconstable.bsky.social
@lrrenner.bsky.social
Martin Tovee
Connor Leslie
Tamsin Saxton
& Kris McCarty

Gillian Pepper looks at #risk in high/low volcano risk areas in Sicily! 🌋

➡️ people weren't more like to help in or out group members 🇮🇹

➡️ but! Less likely to wear seat belts in high risk areas! 🚗

@gillianpepper.bsky.social
#ehbea2025
#volcano

How to align individual & group interests?? 🤔

➡️ Gilbert Roberts models how honest signaling of cooperative intent can do this in a public goods game!

➡️ signallers are chosen as partners

#cooperation #pgg #ehbea2025
@gilbertroberts.bsky.social

8/ It’s been an incredible week of evolutionary human science. 🧑🏻‍🔬🧪🍻

👉🏻 Let’s finish strong, make new connections, and celebrate all we've learned! See you out there! 🎓🌍

#EHBEA2025 #EvolutionaryScience #Scientists #Networks #Collabs #HumanBehaviour #Research

7/ 🏆 Finally, wrap up at 16:50 with the Conference Awards and AGM! Don't miss celebrating the top talks and highlights!

🍷🍴 Lastly - Our big dinner bash at the Biscuit Factory!

🎨 Gorgeous art + social + science + excellentfood == the best conference #farewell you can ask for! 🍽️💃

#EHBEA2025

2/ 🧠 Kicking us off at 09:00 is Christine Caldwell with a plenary on cognitive challenges in human cumulative cultural evolution.

A big brain start to Day 4! #EHBEA2025

#Cognition #CulturalEvolution #CumulativeCulture