Licensed to say no: How and why does engaging in a prior moral action influence family support provision?

•We examine whether engaging in a prior moral action influences support provision.•Engaging in a prior moral action reduced family support provision.•Licensing effects were more pronounced when situational severity was low.•These effects were mediated by counterfactual thinking.

The family support literature tends to draw on a level paradigm focusing on support from a particular source over time. In the present study, we take the event paradigm (or the episodic approach) which treats family support provisions as specific encounters. Specifically, we draw on the moral licensing literature to examine why, when, and how individuals' prior moral action influences the provision of family support in three studies. In Studies 1a and 1b, we found that individuals who engaged in a prior moral action provided less family support in comparison to those who did not engage in a prior moral action. In Study 2, we found that the indirect effects of engaging in a prior moral action on family support provision as mediated by individuals' counterfactual thinking were observed only when situational severity was low. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.