Reacting to Unfairness: Group Identity and Dishonest Behavior

Reacting to Unfairness: Group Identity and Dishonest Behavior

We experimentally investigate whether individuals are more likely to engage in dishonest behavior after having experienced unfairness perpetrated by an individual with a salient group identity. Two individuals generate an endowment together, but only one can decide how to share it. They either share the same group identity or have distinct group identities. Then, they approach a task in which t...

Running head: OSTRACISM AND DISHONEST BEHAVIOR Feeling Entitled to More: Ostracism Increases Dishonest Behavior

Five experiments tested whether ostracism increases dishonesty through increased feelings of entitlement. Compared to included and control participants, ostracized participants indicated higher levels of dishonest intentions (Experiments 1 to 3) and cheated more to take undeserved money in a behavioral task (Experiments 4 and 5). In addition, increased feelings of entitlement mediated the effec...

Editorial: Dishonest Behavior, from Theory to Practice

The rapidly growing field of behavioral ethics has shown that dishonest acts are highly prevalent in all walks of life, from corruption among politicians to flagrant cases of doping in sports, to everyday slips, and misdemeanors by ordinary people who nevertheless perceive themselves as highly moral. For instance, managers exaggerate travel expenses, consumers engage in wardrobing, citizens eva...

Commentary: Winning a competition predicts dishonest behavior

Winning a competition predicts dishonest behavior.

Winning a competition engenders subsequent unrelated unethical behavior. Five studies reveal that after a competition has taken place winners behave more dishonestly than competition losers. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that winning a competition increases the likelihood of winners to steal money from their counterparts in a subsequent unrelated task. Studies 3a and 3b demonstrate that the effec...