Definition
Moralizing is the habit of lecturing others about right and wrong — correcting their views, judging their choices, positioning oneself as the arbiter of proper conduct. Greene lists it as a defining trait of the Anti-Seducer: a behavior that reliably repels.
The problem is not having values. It is the posture moralizing puts the other person in — that of a pupil being corrected — which is incompatible with the equality and ease that attraction requires.
Why it matters
How it works
Moralizing fails because of the relationship it implies. To lecture someone about right and wrong is to claim a higher position and assign them a lower one, and people resist being demoted in conversation. It also reveals a self-focus: the moralizer is performing their own rectitude rather than attending to the other person's actual experience. Greene's contrast is instructive — the seductive figures he admires withhold judgment, create an atmosphere of acceptance, and let people feel free in their company. The constructive reading is not that values should be abandoned, but that they persuade more by being embodied than by being announced.