早上跑步5公里，午餐吃完就加了塊芝士蛋糕；騎自行車綠色出行一周，周末就開著大排量的車去郊區游玩。在我們無意識的情況下，有些好事卻成為了做壞事的通行證。

Self-licensing is the unconscious tendency to allow yourself to do something bad after you have done something good.
“自我縱許”指做了一些好事之后會無意識地允許自己做點不好的事。

Imagining yourself as “doing good” can sometimes lead to bad things. You eat more at Thanksgiving because you went to the gym in the morning. The “good” action somehow licenses the “bad” action, because you have a self-image as a healthy person.
覺得自己“在做好事”有時會導致一些不好的事。感恩節你吃的比之前多，因為那天早晨你去了趟健身房。“好的”的行為有時會成為“壞”行為的通行證，因為你已經樹立了一個健康的自我形象。

It's what many diet experts say may be behind why so many of us fall off the diet rails on our “cheat days.”
節食專家稱這種“自我縱許”的心理正是我們很多人在節食的過程中偶有幾天“放縱偷懶”的背后原因。

Washington Post staff writer Michael Rosenwald described the following everyday examples of self-licensing behavior:“We drink Diet Coke – with Quarter Pounders and fries at McDonald's. We go to the gym – and ride the elevator to the second floor. We install tankless water heaters – then take longer showers. We drive SUVs to see Al Gore's speeches on global warming.”
《華盛頓郵報》撰稿人邁克爾·羅森沃德列出了一些日常生活中“自我縱許”的例子：“我們喝著健怡可樂，同時在麥當勞吃大漢堡和薯條。我們去健身房，然而上二樓都要坐電梯。我們安裝即熱式熱水器，然后洗澡花的時間更長了。我們開著SUV去聽艾爾·戈爾的全球變暖演講。”

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen）