The unhealthy road not taken: Licensing indulgence by exaggerating counterfactual sins

► Examined how thoughts of the “sinful road not taken” can license unhealthy behavior. ► Dieters made unhealthier choices after reflecting on foregone indulgences. ► To license indulgence, dieters inflated the unhealthiness of foods they had forgone. ► Inflating the sinfulness of foregone actions can allow one to succumb to temptation.