Four experiments demonstrated that recalling memories from one's own childhood lead people to experience feelings of moral purity and to behave prosocially. In Experiment 1, participants instructed to recall memories from their childhood were more likely to help the experimenter with a...

In four laboratory studies, we find that regulatory focus induced by situational cues (such as the framing of a task or incentive schemes) influences people’s likelihood to cross ethical boundaries. A promotion focus leads individuals to be more likely to act unethically than a prevention...

It is common for people to be more critical of others' ethical choices than of their own. This chapter explores those remarkable circumstances in which people see no evil in others' unethical behavior. Specifically, we explore 1) the motivated tendency to overlook the unethical behavior of...

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...

People often make judgments about the ethicality of others’ behaviors and then decide how harshly to punish such behaviors. When they make these judgments and decisions, sometimes the victims of the unethical behavior are identifiable, and sometimes they are not. In addition, in our uncertain...

Previous research on unethical behavior in organizations suggests that employees who engage in such behavior are motivated by the desire to advance their own self-interest, often acting selfishly at the expense of their own organizations. However, such behaviors also may be motivated by...

We focus on understanding how employees perceive and interpret ethics codes. Research on ethics codes suggests that they may play an important role in the overall attempt to curb unethical behavior. Codes are viewed as an important form of organizational discourse, which is crafted, implemented,...

Most companies use codes of conduct, ethical training and regular communication to assure employees know about rules to follow to avoid misconduct. This paper focuses on the type of language used in codes of conduct, and shows that impersonal language (“employees/members”) and personal,...