IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bge/wpaper/601.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rules or Consequences? The Role of Ethical Mindsets in Moral Dynamics

Author

Listed:
  • Gert Cornelissen
  • Michael R. Bashshur
  • Julian Rode
  • Marc Le Menestrel

Abstract

Recent research on the dynamics of moral behavior has documented two contrasting phenomena - moral consistency and moral balancing. Moral balancing refers to the phenomenon whereby behaving (un)ethically decreases the likelihood of doing so again at a later time. Moral consistency describes the opposite pattern - engaging in (un)ethical behavior increases the likelihood of doing so later on. Three studies support the hypothesis that individuals' ethical mindset (i.e., outcome-based versus rule-based) moderates the impact of an initial (un)ethical act on the likelihood of behaving ethically in a subsequent occasion. More specifically, an outcome-based mindset facilitates moral balancing and a rule-based mindset facilitates moral consistency.

Suggested Citation

  • Gert Cornelissen & Michael R. Bashshur & Julian Rode & Marc Le Menestrel, 2012. "Rules or Consequences? The Role of Ethical Mindsets in Moral Dynamics," Working Papers 601, Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.barcelonagse.eu/sites/default/files/working_paper_pdfs/601.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Ariely & Nina Mazar, 2006. "Dishonesty in everyday life and its policy implications," Working Papers 06-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    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. Stimel, Derek & Sekerka, Leslie E., 2018. "Play fair! Innovating internal self-regulation in the market for profit," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 115-124.
    2. Gallier, Carlo & Reif, Christiane & Römer, Daniel, 2017. "Repeated pro-social behavior in the presence of economic interventions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 18-28.
    3. Johan Warburg & Britta Frommeyer & Julia Koch & Sven‐Olaf Gerdt & Gerhard Schewe, 2021. "Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3009-3024, November.
    4. Dolan, Paul & Galizzi, Matteo M., 2015. "Like ripples on a pond: Behavioral spillovers and their implications for research and policy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-16.
    5. Vincent, Michael & Koessler, Ann-Kathrin, 2018. "Mapping Moral Pluralism in Behavioural Spillovers: A cross-disciplinary account of the multiple ways in which we engage in moral valuing," EconStor Preprints 183195, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Dolan, Paul & Galizzi, Matteo M., 2014. "Because I'm worth it: a lab-field experiment on the spillover effects of incentives in health," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60356, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Gallier, Carlo & Reif, Christiane & Römer, Daniel, 2014. "Consistent or balanced? On the dynamics of voluntary contributions," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-060, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Wassili Lasarov & Stefan Hoffmann, 2020. "Social Moral Licensing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 45-66, August.
    9. Vincent, Michael & Koessler, Ann-Kathrin, 2019. "Moral Pluralism in Behavioural Spillovers: A cross-disciplinary account of the multiple ways in which we engage in moral valuing," EconStor Preprints 194099, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    10. Hannes Rusch, 2015. "Do Bankers Have Deviant Moral Attitudes? ?Negative Results from a Tentative Survey," Rationality, Markets and Morals, Frankfurt School Verlag, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, vol. 6(92), January.
    11. Ploner, Matteo & Regner, Tobias, 2013. "Self-image and moral balancing: An experimental analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 374-383.
    12. Joaquin Gómez-Miñambres & Eric Schniter, 2017. "Emotions and Behavior Regulation in Decision Dilemmas," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-25, May.
    13. Ek, Claes, 2015. "Prosocial Behavior and Policy Spillovers: A Multi-Activity Approach," Working Papers 2015:26, Lund University, Department of Economics, revised 11 Sep 2017.
    14. Christopher Chan & Subramaniam Ananthram, 2019. "Religion-Based Decision Making in Indian Multinationals: A Multi-faith Study of Ethical Virtues and Mindsets," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 651-677, May.
    15. Ostermaier, Andreas & Uhl, Matthias, 2017. "Spot On For Liars! How Public Scrutiny Influences Ethical Behavior," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168167, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Santarius, Tilman & Soland, Martin, 2018. "How Technological Efficiency Improvements Change Consumer Preferences: Towards a Psychological Theory of Rebound Effects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 414-424.
    17. Philipp Simbrunner & Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, 2017. "Moral licensing: a culture-moderated meta-analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 201-225, August.
    18. Clot, Sophie & Grolleau, Gilles & Ibanez, Lisette, 2014. "Smug Alert! Exploring self-licensing behavior in a cheating game," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 191-194.
    19. Gómez-Miñambres, Joaquín & Schniter, Eric, 2017. "Emotional calibration of self-control," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 110-118.

    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. Nils Köbis & Jean-François Bonnefon & Iyad Rahwan, 2021. "Bad machines corrupt good morals," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(6), pages 679-685, June.
    2. Bucciol, Alessandro & Landini, Fabio & Piovesan, Marco, 2013. "Unethical behavior in the field: Demographic characteristics and beliefs of the cheater," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 248-257.
    3. Mariela E Jaffé & Rainer Greifeneder & Marc-André Reinhard, 2019. "Manipulating the odds: The effects of Machiavellianism and construal level on cheating behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-22, November.
    4. Ruffle, Bradley J. & Tobol, Yossef, 2014. "Honest on Mondays: Honesty and the temporal separation between decisions and payoffs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 126-135.
    5. Azar, Ofer H. & Applebaum, Mark, 2020. "Do children cheat to be honored? A natural experiment on dishonesty in a math competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 143-157.
    6. Florian Ederer & Ernst Fehr, 2007. "Deception and Incentives. How Dishonesty Undermines Effort Provision," IEW - Working Papers 341, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    7. Jacobsen, Catrine & Piovesan, Marco, 2016. "Tax me if you can: An artifactual field experiment on dishonesty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 7-14.
    8. Tine Bock & Iris Vermeir & Patrick Kenhove, 2013. "“What’s the Harm in Being Unethical? These Strangers are Rich Anyway!” Exploring Underlying Factors of Double Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 225-240, January.
    9. Azar, Ofer H. & Yosef, Shira & Bar-Eli, Michael, 2013. "Do customers return excessive change in a restaurant?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 219-226.
    10. William Lesch & Johannes Brinkmann, 2011. "Consumer Insurance Fraud/Abuse as Co-creation and Co-responsibility: A New Paradigm," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 17-32, April.
    11. Jingnan Chen & Daniel Houser, 2017. "Promises and lies: can observers detect deception in written messages," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(2), pages 396-419, June.
    12. Insaf Békir & Sana El. Harbi & Gilles Grolleau & Naoufel Mzoughi & Angela Sutan, 2016. "The Impact of Monitoring and Sanctions on Cheating: Experimental Evidence from Tunisia," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(7), pages 461-473, October.
    13. Mantilla, Cesar, 2014. "Congruent Behavior without Interpersonal Commitment: Evidence from a Common Pool Resource Game," IAST Working Papers 14-11, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    14. Galeotti, Fabio & Kline, Reuben & Orsini, Raimondello, 2017. "When foul play seems fair: Exploring the link between just deserts and honesty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 451-467.
    15. Fosgaard, Toke Reinholt & Hansen, Lars Gaarn & Piovesan, Marco, 2013. "Separating Will from Grace: An experiment on conformity and awareness in cheating," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 279-284.
    16. Harrison, Mark, 2009. "Forging Success : Soviet Managers and False Accounting, 1943 to 1962," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 909, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    17. Pfister, Roland & Wirth, Robert & Weller, Lisa & Foerster, Anna & Schwarz, Katharina, 2018. "Taking shortcuts: Cognitive conflict during motivated rule-breaking," MPRA Paper 95773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Jacquemet, Nicolas & Joule, Robert-Vincent & Luchini, Stéphane & Malézieux, Antoine, 2016. "Engagement et incitations : comportements économiques sous serment," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 92(1-2), pages 315-349, Mars-Juin.
    19. Ognedal, Tone, 2016. "Morality in the market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 100-115.
    20. Bryce, Cormac & Webb, Rob & Cheevers, Carly & Ring, P. & Clark, G., 2016. "Should the insurance industry be banking on risk escalation for solvency II?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 131-139.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    moral balancing; moral consistency; ethical mindsets; ethical behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

    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:bge:wpaper:601. 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: Bruno Guallar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bargses.html .

    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.