An individual's track record as a good egalitarian individual can establish an unconscious ethical certification, endorsement, or license within that individual and this will increase their likelihood of making less egalitarian decisions later. This moral credentialing effect occurs even when the individual's audience is unaware of the individual's previously established moral credential. For example, individuals who had the opportunity to recruit a woman or African American 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. Similar effects also appear to occur when a person observes another person from a group they identify with making an egalitarian decision.

Quotes

• Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
  Friedrich Nietzsche
  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
  
   in Human, All Too Human (1878)
  Human, All Too Human
  Human, All Too Human , subtitled A Book for Free Spirits , is a book by 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1878...
  
  :

Innocent corruption. In all institutions that do not feel the sharp wind of public criticism (as, for example, in scholarly organizations and senates), an innocent corruption grows up, like a mushroom.