Under the Threat of an Epidemic: People with Higher Subjective Socioeconomic Status Show More Unethical Behaviors

Ting Wang, Xue Wang, Tonglin Jiang, Shiyao Wang and Zhansheng Chen
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Ting Wang: School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Xue Wang: Marketing Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Tonglin Jiang: School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Shiyao Wang: Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Zhansheng Chen: Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: This research focused on the psychological impact of an epidemic. We conducted a cross-sectional survey and two empirical experiments to examine how an epidemic would influence unethical behaviors and how the effect differs in people of different subjective socioeconomic statuses. These studies consistently demonstrated that subjective socioeconomic status moderates the relationship between an epidemic and unethical behaviors. Specifically, the perceived severity of an epidemic positively predicts the unethical behaviors of people with a high socioeconomic status, but it does not predict the unethical behaviors of people with a low socioeconomic status. These findings elucidate the effects of epidemics and bring theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords: epidemic; social class; socioeconomic status; unethical behaviors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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