Reward perception, but not reward inequality is associated with increased bribe-taking in a laboratory task

Štěpán Bahník and Marek Albert Vranka
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Štěpán Bahník: University of Economics, Prague
Marek Albert Vranka: University of Economics

No n7atx, OSF Preprints from Center for Open Science

Abstract: People are more likely to behave selfishly when such behavior is easier to justify. When one receives a lesser reward for the same performed task, the perceived unfairness of the reward may serve as a justification for subsequent selfish behavior. In the present study, we let participants to break rules in a sorting task in order to increase their rewards while simultaneously harming a third party, simulating a bribe-taking. Although we did not find evidence that manipulation of perceived reward inequality affects bribe-taking, people who perceived their reward more negatively behaved more selfishly and took more bribes, causing more harm to the charity.

Date: 2022-03-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:osfxxx:n7atx

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/n7atx

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