Résumé
A limited but growing literature contends that licensing can operate by committing to avirtuous act in a preceding choice, which reduces negative self-attributions associated with donatingless or behaving less virtuously in the succeeding decision. Psychological research and behavioraleconomics strongly suggest that pre-existing intrinsic motivations of individuals play a major role indetermining their subsequent choices when faced with a voluntary or mandatory virtuous ‘act’. Inthis paper, we report the results of a pilot experimental study examining licensing effect in theenvironmental realm, using a 2 (mandatory or voluntary nature of the virtuous act) X 2 (intrinsicallyor non-intrinsically motivated individuals) between subjects design. We found that intrinsicallymotivated and non-intrinsically motivated subjects reacted adversely to the two policy scenarios. Thelicensing effect occurs when combining intrinsically (resp., non-intrinsically) motivated individualsand mandatory (resp. voluntary) conditions.