A counterfeit competence: After threat, cheating boosts one's self-image

Impacts of Unethical Behavior on Self-Esteem: A Contingent Dual-Process Model

Previous studies have reported mixed findings on how and why unethical behavior affects self-esteem. To address this issue, a contingent dual-process model is proposed and tested. The model postulates a negative impact of unethical behavior on self-esteem through decreased morality, a positive effect through increased competence, and the relative strength of these two paths depending on system-justifying motives. Studies using unethical behavior for self-interest (Studies 1 and 2), involving ingroup interest (Study 3), and measuring (Studies 1 and 3) and manipulating general system justification (Study 2) provide support for the model. By identifying the effects of system-justifying motives and linking the two competing paths, the model reconciles inconsistencies in previous research regarding how self-esteem is influenced by unethical behavior and reveals the underlying mechanism of this association. Accordingly, the current research constructs a motivational and superordinate framework to clarify the dynamic consequences of unethical behavior.

Intention to whistleblow: Perception of reporting skill mediates the predicting role of class consciousness and perceived probability of revenge

Background

A number of corruption cases would never have been revealed without the role of the whistleblower. Whistleblowers - as people who know about corruption incidents in their environment - are social capital in preventing and eradicating corruption. For this reason, it is urgent to know the configuration of psychological predictors of a person's intention to carry out whistleblowing.

Methods

Predictive correlational design with a mediation analysis was used in this study. The participants of this study were 374 Indonesians (187 males, 187 females; M age = 25.61 years old; SD age = 6.78 years).

Results

The results showed that perception of reporting skill can mediate the predicting relationship between class consciousness, perceived probability of revenge, and intention to blow the whistle.

Conclusions

Class consciousness and perceived probability of retaliation might encourage someone to feel competent to blow the whistle - or improve their reporting skill - to carry out whistleblowing.

Self-Enhancement Error Motivates Social Projection

Social projection is the tendency to assume that others are similar to the self, whereas self-enhancement is the tendency to see them as inferior. Although these concepts appear to be in conflict, we suggest that both can stem from the same motive of self-protection. In three studies, we show that respondents overestimate the prevalence of self-enhancement bias in others and predict that most self-enhancement entails an error in judgment. Critically, we find that social projection is strongest among those who learn that they have committed a self-enhancement error. Those who receive feedback saying that their positive self-evaluations are false project this outcome onto others. We also find that self-enhancement errors degrade perceptual accuracy. We discuss how self-protection motives affect both self-evaluation and social projection, and how social judgments that appear inductively rational may stem from arational processes of need satisfaction.