Moral Licensing

How are our moral decisions influenced by factors we’re not aware of? A phenomenon known as Moral Licensing claims that when we do something good, we often subconsciously allow ourselves to then do something bad. In this episode, I take a look at whether those who donate money to charity become more likely to let a kid take the blame for a crime they know they committed.

[mroriona]

Conclusion: always be SUPER kind because you never know when you could be in a mind field study.

[vincenturquhart]

Main lesson from the second experiment: if you look confident enough while stealing something, people will assume you have a legitimate reason to take that thing.

[asupertramp]

I'd love to see Michael put in these situations unknowingly, given everything he's learned, and see how he responds.

[uncle]

Moral of this story: Help out people when you can. you never know when Michael comes out of the corner and tells you that you are his guinea pig for his "social experiments".

[Max_Jacoby]

Mind Field S4 E1: Do people value things higher if they pay for them? Let's explore like to views ratio before and after previous seasons were free.

[DraganTubak]

What if this "all episodes are free until the end of the year" is another experiment from Michael and we are all a part of that experiment. I don't know what that experiment could be but maybe it is an experiment. I don't know and as always thanks for reading.

[niggo.]

I feel like this show made me a better person by making me fear that I get recorded doing something bad and people ask me why I did it later

[connor_bell]

I feel like making the security guards accuse the kid, and have him insist he didn't do it, along with putting the participants in a crowd and making their action anonymous, would make the results more accurate. I feel like a large part of this was due to sheer confusion at this kid's instant and baseless act of taking the blame rather than actual moral reasoning.

[internetenjoyer]

lol that dude "i didnt have time to" after spending the whole thing texting. Micheal was so kind in the way he pointed it out as well lol

[harrychristenson]

Chaotic evil: throw trash in the lake and rob the homeless man

[maximuscraig]

I cannot convey my admiration for those who helped twice they're great people

"I didn't have time to help clean"
He was browsing on his phone, he was just being a lazy ass, and didn't even feel bad about it.

[KoyalAlkor]

I think the fact that it was a kid creates an extra variable here. People will be taking into account that the kid probably won't get into serious trouble, while them as adults probably would.

[connortremblay]

Oh man, the vlogger was getting under my skin already just by vlogging about "how good of a person he is" and putting it online, AND THEN HE DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!!!

[roytee]

This idea of moral licensing could explain a phenomenon I've read about and witnessed personally. Parties of churchgoers who go to a restaurant after services, are notoriously bad tippers and can be surprisingly obnoxious. According to the theory, they've been extra good for an hour or so, and feel like they can be jerks afterwards.

[SevenZed]

This channel is the only one worth buying YouTube Red for

[LyteGamingLG]

The guy that vlogged it, Yeah he seriously pissed me off then says oh they were done when i finished vlogging. He made sure he vlogged untill they were finished then turns camera to another section so the viewer couldn't see the place they were picking up trash from, thats super sad and the guy that donated $5 and took blame instantly meaning it was an unconcious decision yeah Zeus is the man for that.

[moshikatze]

This is a “social experiment” without the clickbait.

[tigernotwoods]

Michael did come over. He admitted multiple times he’s the one that answered the door and just stopped after being ignored multiple times.

The other folks that let the kid take the blame I think the way they looked at it was the kid volunteered on his own and he’ll get in less trouble being a 12 year old than they would and justified it that way.

[jailee]

I’ve done so many good deeds that I can now commit murder without feeling like I did anything wrong.