Episode 7: Life Is Precious

Episode 7: Life Is Precious

Getting back into blogging has been a good way for me to slow down, and re-evaluate the important things in my life. I am living during a time gifted to me by my ancestors, where my life, while hectic by modern standards, pales by comparison to the plight of previous generations, whose survival depended on the provision of food, clothing, and shelter. I have been afforded the opportunity to shift my focus away from the monotony of day to day chores, so as to fill my little bit of extra time expanding my knowledge of the world around me. Even though the shackles of survival have been cast off, constraints of time, destiny and fate continue to disrupt our path through life.

What I have learned this week is a lesson I've regretted learning so many times in the past. Be it the loss of a family member, a friend, a colleague, or even an acquaintance, nothing prepares you for the sadness and emptiness that death brings.

Normally I would be creating content for this blog, by researching a new topic, to share with all of you. This week however I will be attending a funeral, and as I write this I remember back to all the others that death has taken from me over the years, quietly saying a prayer for all of them.

Thanks for understanding, and I will return next week with new content.

Episode 6: Moral Licensing

Episode 6: Moral Licensing 

Wikipedia describes moral licensing as follows...

Self-licensing (aka noble cause corruption, moral self-licensing, moral licensing, licensing effect, moral credential effect) is a term used in social psychology and marketing to describe the subconscious phenomenon whereby increased confidence and security in one's self-image or self-concept tends to make that individual worry less about the consequences of subsequent immoral behavior and, therefore, more likely to make immoral choices and act immorally.[1][2][3][4][5][6] In simple terms, self-licensing occurs when people allow themselves to indulge after doing something positive first; for example, drinking a diet soda with a greasy hamburger and fries can lead one to subconsciously discount the negative attributes of the meal's high caloric and cholesterol content.[7]

A large subset of this effect, the moral credential effect, is a bias that occurs when a person's track record as a good egalitarian establishes in them an unconscious ethical certification, endorsement, or license that increases the likelihood of less egalitarian decisions later. This effect occurs even when the audience or moral peer group is unaware of the affected person's previously established moral credential. For example, individuals who had the opportunity to recruit a woman or African American person in one setting were more likely to say later, in a different setting, that a job would be better suited for a man or a Caucasian person.[8] Similar effects also appear to occur when a person observes another person from a group they identify with making an egalitarian decision.[9]

Self-licensing can have negative societal consequences since it has a permissive effect on behaviors such as racial prejudice and discrimination, selfishness, poor dietary and health habits, and excessive energy consumption.

Like always, please chime in to the comments and let me know what you think..