IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobhdp/v124y2014i2p204-214.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ego depletion and its paradoxical effects on ethical decision making

Author

Listed:
  • Yam, Kai Chi
  • Chen, Xiao-Ping
  • Reynolds, Scott J.

Abstract

Whereas previous research has shown that ego depletion can lead to an increase in unethical behavior, we suggest that this effect hinges on the social consensus of the unethical behavior. Drawing from theories on social consensus and dual-process decision-making, we hypothesize and confirm that ego depletion is associated with increased unethical behavior of comparatively low social consensus. We then find that, as hypothesized, ego depletion is associated with decreased unethical behavior of high social consensus (Studies 1 and 2). Results further suggest that, controlling for state self-control resources, depleted participants are less likely to engage in unethical behavior of high social consensus as a result of increased subjective fatigue (Study 3). Taken together, our findings challenge a widely-held assumption about the negative effects of ego depletion on ethical decision making.

Suggested Citation

  • Yam, Kai Chi & Chen, Xiao-Ping & Reynolds, Scott J., 2014. "Ego depletion and its paradoxical effects on ethical decision making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 204-214.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:124:y:2014:i:2:p:204-214
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.03.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597814000284
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.03.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Loewenstein, George, 1996. "Out of Control: Visceral Influences on Behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 272-292, March.
    2. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    3. Gino, Francesca & Pierce, Lamar, 2009. "The abundance effect: Unethical behavior in the presence of wealth," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 142-155, July.
    4. Mead, N.L. & Baumeister, R.F. & Gino, F. & Schweitzer, M.E. & Ariely, D., 2009. "Too tired to tell the truth : Self-control resource depletion and dishonesty," Other publications TiSEM c60167a3-c3aa-4b83-9192-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Paharia, Neeru & Vohs, Kathleen D. & Deshpandé, Rohit, 2013. "Sweatshop labor is wrong unless the shoes are cute: Cognition can both help and hurt moral motivated reasoning," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 81-88.
    6. Weaver, Gary R. & Trevino, Linda Klebe, 1994. "Normative And Empirical Business Ethics: Separation, Marriage Of Convenience, Or Marriage Of Necessity?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 129-143, April.
    7. Treviño, Linda Klebe & Butterfield, Kenneth D. & McCabe, Donald L., 1998. "The Ethical Context in Organizations: Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behaviors," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 447-476, July.
    8. Gino, Francesca & Schweitzer, Maurice E. & Mead, Nicole L. & Ariely, Dan, 2011. "Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 191-203, July.
    9. Shiv, Baba & Fedorikhin, Alexander, 1999. "Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 26(3), pages 278-292, December.
    10. Barnes, Christopher M. & Schaubroeck, John & Huth, Megan & Ghumman, Sonia, 2011. "Lack of sleep and unethical conduct," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 169-180, July.
    11. Yuval Rottenstreich & Sanjay Sood & Lyle Brenner, 2007. "Feeling and Thinking in Memory-Based versus Stimulus-Based Choices," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(4), pages 461-469, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Morris, Michael W. & Hong, Ying-yi & Chiu, Chi-yue & Liu, Zhi, 2015. "Normology: Integrating insights about social norms to understand cultural dynamics," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1-13.
    2. Helena Belchior-Rocha & Aykut Arslan & Serdar Yener, 2024. "Unveiling the Ethical Dilemmas of Digital Piracy: A Comprehensive Exploration of Motivations, Attitudes, and Behaviors," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Esraa Al-Shatti & Marc Ohana & Philippe Odou & Michel Zaitouni, 2022. "Impression Management on Instagram and Unethical Behavior: The Role of Gender and Social Media Fatigue," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-11, August.
    4. Charn P. McAllister & Pamela L. Perrewé, 2018. "About to Burst: How State Self-Regulation Affects the Enactment of Bullying Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 877-888, December.
    5. Kai Chi Yam & Scott J. Reynolds, 2016. "The Effects of Victim Anonymity on Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 13-22, June.
    6. Carolin Baur & Roman Soucek & Ulrich Kühnen & Roy F. Baumeister, 2020. "Unable to Resist the Temptation to Tell the Truth or to Lie for the Organization? Identification Makes the Difference," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 643-662, December.
    7. Xiao Yuan & Yongjuan Li & Yaoshan Xu & Huifang Yang, 2022. "Teacher Support Matters: The Effect of Self-Control Demands on Safety Behavior of Vocational High School Students in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-11, June.
    8. Ke Michael Mai & Aleksander P. J. Ellis & David T. Welsh, 2020. "How Perpetrator Gender Influences Reactions to Premeditated Versus Impulsive Unethical Behavior: A Role Congruity Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 489-503, October.
    9. Andrew Harrison & James Summers & Brian Mennecke, 2018. "The Effects of the Dark Triad on Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 53-77, November.
    10. Paramita, Widya & Zulfa, Naila & Rostiani, Rokhima & Widyaningsih, Yulia A. & Sholihin, Mahfud, 2021. "Ethics support through rapport: Elaborating the impact of service provider rapport on ethical behaviour intention of the tourists," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Cony M. Ho & Szu‐Han ( Joanna) Lin & Russell E. Johnson, 2022. "Does depletion have a bright side? Self‐regulation exertion heightens creative engagement," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 666-684, June.
    12. Hafenbrack, Andrew C. & Vohs, Kathleen D., 2018. "Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Yuanfang Zhan & Jinfan Zhou & Huan Cheng & Renyan Mu, 2021. "Feeling Gratitude and Depletion: The Ambivalent Consequences of Receiving Help in the Workplace," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-13, February.
    14. Douthit, Jeremy & Millar, Melanie & White, Roger M., 2021. "Horseshoes, hand grenades, and regulatory enforcement: Close experience with potential sanctions and fraud deterrence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 137-148.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yam, Kai Chi & Reynolds, Scott J. & Hirsh, Jacob B., 2014. "The hungry thief: Physiological deprivation and its effects on unethical behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 123-133.
    2. Anne Joosten & Marius Dijke & Alain Hiel & David Cremer, 2014. "Feel Good, Do-Good!? On Consistency and Compensation in Moral Self-Regulation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 71-84, August.
    3. Kai Chi Yam, 2018. "The Effects of Thought Suppression on Ethical Decision Making: Mental Rebound Versus Ego Depletion," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 65-79, January.
    4. Hershfield, Hal E. & Cohen, Taya R. & Thompson, Leigh, 2012. "Short horizons and tempting situations: Lack of continuity to our future selves leads to unethical decision making and behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 298-310.
    5. Gino, Francesca & Schweitzer, Maurice E. & Mead, Nicole L. & Ariely, Dan, 2011. "Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 191-203, July.
    6. Muel Kaptein, 2017. "The Battle for Business Ethics: A Struggle Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 343-361, August.
    7. Palma, Marco A. & Segovia, Michelle S. & Kassas, Bachir & Ribera, Luis A. & Hall, Charles R., 2018. "Self-control: Knowledge or perishable resource?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 80-94.
    8. repec:cup:judgdm:v:9:y:2014:i:3:p:199-206 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Dickinson, David L. & Masclet, David, 2023. "Unethical decision making and sleep restriction: Experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 484-502.
    10. Anne Joosten & Marius Dijke & Alain Hiel & David Cremer, 2014. "Being “in Control” May Make You Lose Control: The Role of Self-Regulation in Unethical Leadership Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Carolin Baur & Roman Soucek & Ulrich Kühnen & Roy F. Baumeister, 2020. "Unable to Resist the Temptation to Tell the Truth or to Lie for the Organization? Identification Makes the Difference," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 643-662, December.
    12. Jingqiu Chen & Thomas Tang & Ningyu Tang, 2014. "Temptation, Monetary Intelligence (Love of Money), and Environmental Context on Unethical Intentions and Cheating," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(2), pages 197-219, August.
    13. Anne Joosten & Marius van Dijke & Alain Van Hiel & David De Cremer, 2015. "Out of Control!? How Loss of Self-Control Influences Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Power and Moral Values," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-20, May.
    14. Rahizah Sulaiman & Paul Toulson & David Brougham & Frieder Lempp & Jarrod Haar, 2022. "The Role of Religiosity in Ethical Decision-Making: A Study on Islam and the Malaysian Workplace," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 297-313, August.
    15. Rostami, Amin & Gabler, Colin & Agnihotri, Raj, 2019. "Under pressure: The pros and cons of putting time pressure on your salesforce," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 153-162.
    16. Yajun Zhang & Kai Chi Yam & Maryam Kouchaki & Junwei Zhang, 2019. "Cut You Some Slack? An Investigation of the Perceptions of a Depleted Employee’s Unethicality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 673-683, July.
    17. Anna E. van 't Veer & Marielle Stel & Ilja van Beest, 2014. "Limited capacity to lie: Cognitive load interferes with being dishonest," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 9(3), pages 199-206, May.
    18. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Nicolás Salamanca & Anna Zhu, 2019. "Parenting style as an investment in human development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1315-1352, October.
    19. Lohse, Tim & Simon, Sven A. & Konrad, Kai A., 2018. "Deception under time pressure: Conscious decision or a problem of awareness?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 31-42.
    20. Roland Benabou & Armin Falk & Jean Tirole, 2018. "Narratives, Imperatives, and Moral Reasoning," Working Papers id:12918, eSocialSciences.
    21. Martin Binder & Leonhard K. Lades, 2015. "Autonomy-Enhancing Paternalism," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 3-27, February.

    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:eee:jobhdp:v:124:y:2014:i:2:p:204-214. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/obhdp .

    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.