Double Standards in the Judgment of Consumer versus Business Unethical Behavior

Double standards in terms of individuals being more tolerant of questionable consumer practices than of similar business practices have been researched in several studies (e.g., De Bock, Vermeir & Van Kenhove, 2013; De Bock & Van Kenhove, 2011; Vermeir & Van Kenhove, 2008; DePaulo, 1987). However, a mismatch between the perceptions of a company’s corporate behavior and a consumer’s ethical behavior has scarcely been assessed from the point of view of individual differences on the consumer side. The purpose of the current study is to explore individual differences (optimistic versus pessimistic attitude towards business) in the use of ethical judgments regarding questionable conduct of a business versus that of a consumer. In other words, we investigate if the consumers who are positively disposed towards business are less critical of unethical corporate than of consumer actions. In our study, we compared the level of optimism with regard to businesses with attitudes towards business ethics (using the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility scale (PRESOR) created by Singhapakdi, Vitell, Rallapalli and Kraft (1996)), and the attitudes towards consumer ethics (using the Consumer Ethics Scale (CES) by Vitell and Muncy (1992)). Research results indicate that the individuals having optimistic attitudes towards business are less likely to use double standards when it comes to (un)ethical consumer behavior, compared to (un)ethical corporate actions. Limitations and suggestions for further research are presented.