Effect of scarcity experience on unethical behavior: The mediating role of consideration of future consequences

Scarcity experience occurs when people feel they have less than they need. Previous research indicates that scarcity experience affects individuals' cognitive function, social behavior, and decision-making process. However, it remains unclear whether and how experienced scarcity influences unethical behavior. This paper reports three studies testing the potential relationship and mediational mechanisms. Study 1 assesses the associations between general scarcity experience, desire for money, consideration of future consequences, and unethical behavior. Studies 2 and 3 then manipulate scarcity experience (versus abundant experience and a neutral control condition) through paradigms of recalling (Study 2) and imagining (Study 3), and test the effect on self-reported unethical behavior (Study 2) and actual unethical conduct (Study 3), as well as the mediating effects of desire for money and consideration of future consequences. The results show that individuals experiencing scarcity were more likely to behave unethically, regardless of gender, age, or socioeconomic status. However, consideration of future consequences mediated the effect of scarcity experience on unethical behavior only in Study 1. Further research is needed to uncover the underlying mechanism through which scarcity evokes unethical behavior.

Emotions and ethics: How emotions sensitize perceptions of the consequences for self and others to motivate unethical behavior

In this work, we suggest that emotions differentiated by cognitive appraisals may promote self-concern or other-concern that alter the utilitarian calculus of weighing the harm and benefits associated with moral decision-making. We introduce the Emotions and Ethics Framework to elucidate the intrapsychic effect of emotion on deception. When emotions promote self-concern, individuals are more likely engage in selfish deception. By contrast, when emotions promote other-concern, individuals are more likely to exhibit honesty. Furthermore, we extrapolate our theoretical model to consider how felt emotions influence different types of deception: selfish lies, prosocial lies, spiteful lies, and pareto lies. Finally, we theorize about the interpersonal effect of emotional expressions on deception, suggesting that the ethical consequences of emotion contagion and reverse-appraisal processes are distinct.

DENIAL: A conceptual framework to improve honesty nudges

Strategies to mitigate dishonesty have met with limited success, leading behavioral ethics scholars to call for a deeper understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying dishonesty. In this article, I introduce a conceptual framework, DENIAL, that identifies four fundamental mechanisms, or justifications, which provide people a rationale to consider themselves as ethical while acting unethically. I derive these justifications from a review of scholarship within cognate fields, drawing on Moral Disengagement Theory and Neutralization Theory. I identify the victim (they Deserve it), the situation (I blame my Environment), the harm (I cause No Injury), and the social relationship (I have other ALlegiances) as fundamental justifications for dishonesty. I discuss how future mitigation strategies might harness these justifications to improve their efficacy.

The red packet phenomenon from the perspective of young Chinese doctors: a questionnaire study

Background

In China, informal payments in the medical profession, which workers in the public health care system receive from patients in the course of performing profession-related activities, are usually referred to as “red packets” (Hongbao 红包). The phenomenon of red packets is widespread and has become one of the most negative factors affecting the doctor-patient relationship in China. Our study aims to explore the situation concerning the phenomenon of red packets in China after the “Red Packet Ban”.

Methods

A questionnaire was developed including general demographic characteristics, asking whether they had ever been offered red packets, whether they had ever accepted red packets, their reasons for accepting the first red packet and so on. We recruited a total of 413 doctors to complete this questionnaire and conducted in-depth telephone interviews with 18 doctors from the initial group.

Results

Our data shows that 73 doctors claimed to have accepted red packets, accounting for 17.7% (73/413) of all respondents and 27.8% (73/263) of doctors who had been provided with red packets. 23.2% of red packets were offered after the operation and 67.1% of the doctors declared that the main reason for accepting the red packet was that they “refused the red packets more than once, but the patients/family members were sincere and it was difficult to refuse.” The total amount of the red packets they received each month accounted for no more than 5% of their income.

Conclusions

(1) The acceptance of red packets does exist among young doctors in China, but shows a significant decrease compared to previous studies. (2) There has been a sharp rise in the proportion of gratitude red packets. (3) Patients should also be educated regarding their behaviour in providing red packets.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12910-022-00793-w.

A Paradox of Ethics: Why People in Good Organizations do Bad Things

This article takes a novel approach to explaining the causes of unethical behavior in organizations. Instead of explaining the unethical behavior of employees in terms of their bad organization, this article examines how a good organization can lead to employees' unethical behavior. The main idea is that the more ethical an organization becomes, the higher, in some respects, is the likelihood of unethical behavior. This is due to four threatening forces that become stronger when an organization becomes more ethical. These forces are the upward, downward, backward, and forward forces. Each of these forces is illustrated with two effects and each effect is explained by a specific theory. The effects are the effects of the gold digger, high-jump bar, retreating-cat, forbidden-fruit, cheese slicer, moving-spotlight, repeat-prescription, and keeping-up appearances. This paradox of ethics, when goodness breeds badness, opens new research directions.

Gender differences in response to medical red packets (Hongbao, monetary gifts): a questionnaire study on young doctors in China

BACKGROUND

The acceptance of informal payments by doctors is usually viewed as unethical behavior. However, in China, such behavior is a common practice. In this study, we focus on the gender differences in accepting red packets (informal payments) by young doctors in China.

METHODS

A total of 413 young doctors were selected for the study, all of whom were grouped by gender. The questionnaire was designed to include general demographic characteristics, whether they had ever been offered red packets, whether they had ever accepted red packets, the reasons for accepting red packets and so on. Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Pearson's chi-squared test, univariable and multi-variable logistic regressions were used for all analyses by Stata 17.0 SE and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Compared to women, men were more likely to be offered red packets (69.5% [180/259] vs.53.9% [83/154]), and the odds ratio (OR) was statistically significant after adjusting for age, education, position and geographical areas (adjusted OR 1.81, p = 0.012). In terms of the question of whether or not they had accepted red packets, more male doctors answered "yes" compared to female doctors (33.3% [60/180] vs.15.7% [13/83], adjusted OR 2.80, p = 0.004). However, among those who had accepted red packets, we found that only 42.0% [25/60] of male doctors considered that it was normal to accept such red packets, compared to 85.0% [11/13] of women (adjusted OR 12.01, p = 0.023).

CONCLUSION

The study revealed that Chinese patients and their families were more likely to offer red packets to male doctors. Secondly, among doctors who had been offered red packets, male doctors were more likely to accept red packets than female doctors. In addition, among doctors who had accepted red packets, female doctors were more likely to believe that it was not morally wrong to accept such red packets.

Honesty-Humility and unethical behavior in adolescents: The mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of system justification

INTRODUCTION

Honesty-Humility represents the tendency to be fair, genuine, and cooperative in social interactions. Although previous evidence has demonstrated that Honesty-Humility is related to decreased unethical behavior, little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship, especially among adolescents. Based on social cognitive theory and system justification theory, the present study aims to examine the mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of system justification in the relationship between Honesty-Humility and unethical behavior among Chinese adolescents.

METHODS

A large sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 2,576, 47% boys; M_age = 17.00 years, SD = 1.07) was recruited from four senior high schools. The participants completed questionnaires regarding Honesty-Humility, moral disengagement, system justification, and unethical behavior.

RESULTS

The findings suggested that Honesty-Humility was negatively associated with adolescents' unethical behavior, and moral disengagement partially mediated this negative association. Furthermore, system justification moderated the mediation model. Specifically, the negative relationships between Honesty-Humility and moral disengagement/unethical behavior were stronger among adolescents who perceive the society as fair.

CONCLUSION

These findings advance the understanding of when and how Honesty-Humility prevents adolescents from unethical behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of the current study as well as future research directions are discussed.

The Behavior of Organization in Economic Crisis: Integration, Interpretation, and Research Development

We investigated the significance of an economic crisis for organizations' ethical behavior, employees' unethical behavior, and association. To capture the effect of the "2008' World economic crisis," we compared the behaviors of organizations and employees' unethical behavior during a crisis with their behavior in more favorable circumstances before and after the crisis. We used structural equation modeling to analyze answers collected from 2024 employees in Slovenian organizations between 2006 and 2016. The results showed significant growth of organizational engagement in ethical behavior, despite the crisis in the middle of the observed period. The employees' unethical behavior was significantly less acceptable in crisis compared to before the crisis, while after the crisis, its acceptability increased again, despite not significant. The aggregate sample revealed a significantly negative influence of employee's unethical behavior on organizations' ethical behavior that was not significantly different across the considered periods. The research suggests the need to manage the organization's ethical behavior in times of economic downturn, like in the present COVID 19. Additionally, managers need to devote more attention to prevent employees' unethical behavior and its influence on organizations' ethical behavior.

Heat and fraud: evaluating how room temperature influences fraud likelihood

Despite the considerable amount of research devoted to understanding fraud, few studies have examined how the physical environment can influence the likelihood of committing fraud. One recent study found a link between room brightness and occurrence of human fraud behaviors. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate how temperature may affect fraud. Based on a power analysis using the effect size observed in a pilot study, we recruited 105 participants and randomly divided them into three temperature groups (warm, medium, and cool). We then counted fraud behaviors in each group and tested for potential significant differences with a Kruskal–Wallis test. Additionally, we used a correlation analysis to determine whether the perceived temperature affected fraud. As a result, regardless of participants’ subjective sensory experience or their physical environment, we did not find that temperature-related factors influence the incidence of fraud. We discussed the potential reason for the results and suggested directions for future research.

Personality and Islamic religiosity: Preliminary survey data of Bruneian Malay Muslim university students and their psychological well-being, unethical behavior, and dark triad traits

The paper presents data collected using measures of personality, Islamic religiosity, psychological well-being, unethical behavior, and dark triad traits. The sample consists 277 Bruneian Malay Muslim university students. The participants were sampled at a public university in Brunei. Through cooperation with faculty members, a link to the online questionnaire was posted on the learning management system platform. The targeted population was informed they were invited to participate voluntarily, and all information would be confidential. Completed questionnaires were submitted by 171 females and 106 males. The age ranged between 18 and 30 years old (M = 19.62, SD = 1.65). This data article presented the demographic characteristics of participants, followed by descriptive statistics of the measures concerning primarily personality and Islamic religiosity, followed by brief measures of psychological nature specifically psychological well-being, unethical behavior, and dark triad traits. Reliability and correlation details of measures were also provided. The comprehensive data, as detailed out in this paper, has various potential for further research and analyses by researchers who are interested in the measures and data presented.

Cheating in the name of others: Offering prosocial justifications promotes unethical behavior in young children

The current research examined whether young children engage in unethical behavior to a greater extent when they have a prosocial justification for doing so. Participants (3- and 5-year-olds, N = 240) played a guessing game in which they were tempted to cheat to win a prize after promising not to do so. In Study 1, children were randomly assigned to either an experimental prosocial condition in which they were told that the prize would be given to a child who was unable to play the game or a control condition in which they were told that they would get to keep the prize for themselves. The 5-year-olds, but not the 3-year-olds, were more likely to cheat in the prosocial condition than in the control condition. Studies 2a and 2b revealed that older children's tendency to engage in prosocial cheating was driven by their concern with signaling to others that they are prosocial. These findings suggest that the tendency to act unethically to benefit others emerges early in development and that this tendency may reflect children's interest in prosocial signaling.

Depletion, moral identity, and unethical behavior: Why people behave unethically after self-control exertion

Self-control enables people to resist short-term temptations in the service of long-term goals. Previous exertion of self-control leads to a state of ego depletion. Three studies demonstrated that ego depletion leads to a high level of unethical behavior. These studies also hypothesized and confirmed that depleted individuals behave unethically because of low moral identity. Study 1 found that depleted participants were more likely to over-report their performance than non-depleted participants. Study 2 revealed that depletion reduced people's moral identity, which in turn increased their propensity to engage in unethical behavior. Study 3 proved that priming moral identity eliminated the effect of depletion on cheating. Findings suggest that reduced moral identity accounts for the effect of self-control depletion on unethical behavior.

Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty

We studied the emotional processes that allow people to balance two competing desires: benefitting from dishonesty and keeping a positive self-image. We recorded physiological arousal (skin conductance and heart rate) during a computer card game in which participants could cheat and fail to report a certain card when presented on the screen to avoid losing their money. We found that higher skin conductance corresponded to lower cheating rates. Importantly, emotional intelligence regulated this effect; participants with high emotional intelligence were less affected by their physiological reactions than those with low emotional intelligence. As a result, they were more likely to profit from dishonesty. However, no interaction emerged between heart rate and emotional intelligence. We suggest that the ability to manage and control emotions can allow people to overcome the tension between doing right or wrong and license them to bend the rules.

The relationship between attention allocation and cheating

Little is known about the relationship between attention allocation and dishonesty. The goal of the present work was to address this issue using the eyetracking methodology. We developed a novel task in which participants could honestly report seeing a particular card and lose money, or they could falsely report not seeing the card and not lose money. When participants cheated, they allocated less attention (i.e., shorter fixation durations and fewer fixations) to the card than when they behaved honestly. Our results suggest that when dishonesty pays, shifting attention away from undesirable information can serve as a self-deception strategy that allows individuals to serve their self-interests while maintaining a positive self-concept.

Birds of a Feather can Butt Heads: When Machiavellian Employees Work with Machiavellian Leaders

Machiavellians are manipulative and deceitful individuals willing to utilize any strategy or behavior needed to attain their goals. This study explores what occurs when Machiavellian employees have a Machiavellian leader with the same negative, manipulative disposition. We argue that Machiavellian employees have a negative worldview and are likely to trust their leaders less. This reduced trust likely results in these employees experiencing higher stress and engaging in more unethical behavior. In addition, we expect these negative relationships to be exacerbated when such followers experience Machiavellian leadership. Thus, we test a moderated mediation model assessing whether Machiavellianism affects employees and whether combining Machiavellian leaders and Machiavellian employees is toxic in the sense of exacerbating the negative impact of Machiavellianism on employee trust. Results do not support the proposed conditional indirect effect of trust for either stress or unethical behavior. Instead, we find a conditional direct effect of employee Machiavellianism on both trust and stress: When Machiavellian employees have Machiavellian leaders, their trust in their leader significantly decreases, and their level of stress significantly increases. We also find support for an unconditional indirect effect of trust for employee stress (but not for unethical work behaviors), Machiavellianism in employees relates to stress via lowered trust in the leader. For unethical behavior, we only find a main effect of employee Machiavellianism.

Social control, social learning, and cheating: Evidence from lab and online experiments on dishonesty

Varying the conditions of the decision-making environment we offered participants the opportunity to increase their payoff by undetectable lies. In addition to a baseline treatment, in which subjects rolled a die in private and showed a high extent of dishonest behavior, we increased the degree of social control by a novel treatment in which subjects played in randomly assigned pairs of two. The presence of others proved to substantially, but only temporarily reduce dishonest behavior. Furthermore, one treatment group received feedback on unethical behavior of participants in a similar experiment. Knowing that others betrayed in the experiment facilitated social learning and led to a higher prevalence of cheating. Finally, increasing the degree of anonymity by re-running the experiment online increased the extent of norm transgressions slightly.