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

Michael Bashshur, Gert Cornelissen (), Marc Le Menestrel () and Julian Rode

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

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.

Keywords: moral balancing; moral consistency; ethical mindsets; ethical behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Rules or Consequences? The Role of Ethical Mindsets in Moral Dynamics (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:1299

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