When Virtue Leads to Villainy: Advances in Research on Moral Self-Licensing

•Acting virtuously can make people feel licensed to act less-than-virtuously.•A license may come from good intentions, foregone sins, or an ingroup's good deeds.•People can strategically create evidence of their virtue when they need a license.•Evidence that you are not a sinner can free you to sin.•Conversely, evidence that you value saintliness may inhibit you from sinning.