Increased Unhealthy Snack Intake After Recalling Academic Accomplishments: Cross-Domain Self-licensing Effects

Self-licensing is the process whereby people rely on justifications to (temporarily) abandon their long term goal(s). The present two studies were designed to provide empirical evidence for cross-domain self-licensing effects, where recalling an instance of virtuous behavior (i.e., academic accomplishment) licenses subsequent indulgence in unhealthy foods. This work builds on earlier studies demonstrating the self-licensing qualities of perceived goal progress, by manipulating a sense of academic accomplishment by either letting female participants recall the times that they studied vs. procrastinated (Study 1; N = 81) or a moment of academic success vs. a typical day (Study 2; N = 91). Unhealthy snack intake was measured in a subsequent a taste-test. It was hypothesized that the self-licensing effects would be most pronounced for eating-concerned individuals, as a greater need to justify indulgence sensitizes people to the presence of licensing cues. In both studies, participants in the license condition ate significantly more of the provided unhealthy snack than participants in the control condition. As expected, this effect was moderated by eating concerns in Study 1. However, no such interaction effect was found for eating restraint in Study 2. These findings suggest that additional research is needed to get a more clear view of what scale best represents a need to self-license when facing food temptations. Also, these results emphasize the important role of mental representations of goal progress for (un)successful self-regulation. Lastly, the suggested underlying mechanism of perceived goal progress needs to be verified in future research.