Psychological closeness, even when born out of subtle similarities with another person, has been found to lead to beneficial outcomes, such as increased cooperation and helping. In the present investigation, we examined the potential dark side of psychological closeness. In five studies...

We investigate rivalry as a driver of unethical behavior. We first distinguish it from general competition, both conceptually and in terms of its consequences for behavior. Then, across four experiments and one archival study, we find evidence that rivalry fuels greater unethical behavior than...