Goodies behaving badly

Quite an interesting little article here:
Goodies behaving badly | Julian Baggini | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk. It comments on some research which shows that people seem to do an individual 'carbon trading' scheme of their own: offsetting virtuous behaviours by seeing that they allow for rather less virtuous behaviours in other areas of their life.
Baggini's comment: "The general truth lurking behind these findings is that the feeling of being pure is a moral contaminant. In ethical terms, the best never think that they are the best, and those that believe themselves to be on the side of the angels are often the worst devils."
This sounds interestingly close to Jesus' critique of the worst of Pharisaism. and he goes on to offer a reason for this: "complacency is as dangerous in ethics as it is in any other area of life where we strive for excellence. If we think we are "good people" we might think less about the possibility that we might actually be doing wrong."
Which, again, sounds close to the critique of Jesus. But it should act as a warning to us all, after all "We are the Pharisees". I personally think this is a key area of ethical self-reflection with major resonances in words about specks and logs in eyes...