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Rules or consequences? The role of ethical mindsets in moral dynamics

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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.

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  • Michael Bashshur & Gert Cornelissen & Marc Le Menestrel & Julian Rode, 2012. "Rules or consequences? The role of ethical mindsets in moral dynamics," Economics Working Papers 1299, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    • Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:1299
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    1. Dan Ariely & Nina Mazar, 2006. "Dishonesty in everyday life and its policy implications," Working Papers 06-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
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    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Wassili Lasarov & Stefan Hoffmann, 2020. "Social Moral Licensing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 45-66, August.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Paul Dolan & Matteo M. Galizzi, 2014. "Because I'm Worth It: A Lab-Field Experiment on the Spillover Effects of Incentives in Health," CEP Discussion Papers dp1286, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. 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.
    13. Philipp Simbrunner & Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, 2017. "Moral licensing: a culture-moderated meta-analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 201-225, August.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Joaquin Gómez-Miñambres & Eric Schniter, 2017. "Emotions and Behavior Regulation in Decision Dilemmas," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-25, May.
    18. 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.
    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.

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    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

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