IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v116y2022i3p1081-1095_22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Curse of Good Intentions: Why Anticorruption Messaging Can Encourage Bribery

Author

Listed:
  • CHEESEMAN, NIC
  • PEIFFER, CARYN

Abstract

Awareness-raising messages feature prominently in most anticorruption strategies. Yet, there has been limited systematic research into their efficacy. There is growing concern that anticorruption awareness-raising efforts may be backfiring; instead of encouraging citizens to resist corruption, they may be nudging them to “go with the corrupt grain.” This study offers a first test of the effect of anticorruption messaging on ordinary people’s behavior. A household-level field experiment, conducted with a representative sample in Lagos, Nigeria, is used to test whether exposure to five different messages about (anti)corruption influence the outcome of a “bribery game.” We find that exposure to anticorruption messages largely fails to discourage the decision to bribe, and in some cases it makes individuals more willing to pay a bribe. Importantly, we also find that the effect of anticorruption messaging is conditioned by an individual’s preexisting perceptions regarding the prevalence of corruption.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheeseman, Nic & Peiffer, Caryn, 2022. "The Curse of Good Intentions: Why Anticorruption Messaging Can Encourage Bribery," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 116(3), pages 1081-1095, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:116:y:2022:i:3:p:1081-1095_22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055421001398/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Werner, Peter, 2024. "On common evaluation standards and the acceptance of wage inequality," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 137-156.
    2. Ajzenman, Nicolás & Ardanaz, Martín & Cruces, Guillermo & Feierherd, Germán & Lunghi, Ignacio, 2024. "Unraveling the Paradox of Anticorruption Messaging: Experimental Evidence from a Tax Administration Reform," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13555, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. Bergeron-Boutin, Olivier & Ciobanu, Costin & Cohen, Guila & Erlich, Aaron, 2023. "Replicating Backfire Effects in Anti-Corruption Messaging: A Comment on Cheeseman and Peiffer (2022)," I4R Discussion Paper Series 94, The Institute for Replication (I4R).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:116:y:2022:i:3:p:1081-1095_22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.