Reward Perception, But Not Reward Inequality is Associated with Increased Bribe-Taking in a Laboratory Task

People are more likely to behave selfishly when such behavior is easier to justify. When someone 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 break rules in a sorting task in order to increase their rewards while simultaneously harming a third party, simulating a bribe-taking and its negative societal effects. 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 caused more harm