Between me and we: The importance of self-profit versus social justifiability for ethical decision making

TY - JOUR

T1 - Between me and we

T2 - The importance of self-profit versus social justifiability for ethical decision making

AU - Klein, S. A.

AU - Thielmann, Isabel

AU - Hilbig, Benjamin E.

AU - Zettler, Ingo

PY - 2017/11

Y1 - 2017/11

N2 - Current theories of dishonest behavior suggest that both individual profits and the availability of justifications drive cheating. Although some evidence hints that cheating behavior is most prevalent when both self-profit and social justifications are present, the relative impact of each of these factors is insufficiently understood. This study provides a fine-grained analysis of the trade-off between self-profit versus social justifiability. In a non-student online sample, we assessed dishonest behavior in a coin-tossing task, involving six conditions which systematically varied both self-profit and social justifiability (in terms of social welfare), such that a decrease in the former was associated with the exact same increase in the latter. Results showed that self-profit outweighed social justifiability, but that there was also an effect of social justifications

AB - Current theories of dishonest behavior suggest that both individual profits and the availability of justifications drive cheating. Although some evidence hints that cheating behavior is most prevalent when both self-profit and social justifications are present, the relative impact of each of these factors is insufficiently understood. This study provides a fine-grained analysis of the trade-off between self-profit versus social justifiability. In a non-student online sample, we assessed dishonest behavior in a coin-tossing task, involving six conditions which systematically varied both self-profit and social justifiability (in terms of social welfare), such that a decrease in the former was associated with the exact same increase in the latter. Results showed that self-profit outweighed social justifiability, but that there was also an effect of social justifications

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - dishonest behavior

KW - cheating

KW - social justification

KW - self-profit

KW - social welfare

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1930-2975

VL - 12

SP - 563

EP - 571

JO - Judgment and Decision Making

JF - Judgment and Decision Making

IS - 6

ER -