Anticipating temptation may improve ethical behavior, a new study finds.
Honest behavior can resemble maintaining a healthy diet: awareness and advance planning help. New research suggests that recognizing an ethical conflict in advance and mentally preparing for the temptation to act dishonestly both increase the likelihood that people will choose honest actions when faced with moral decisions.
The study, titled “Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically,” was conducted by Ayelet Fishbach of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Oliver J. Sheldon of Rutgers Business School. Published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the research is the first to examine how two separate factors—identifying an ethical conflict and anticipating the temptation to behave unethically—interact to influence ethical choices.
Across a series of experiments involving everyday ethical dilemmas, the researchers found that honesty was most likely when both conditions were met: participants who framed an ethical choice as connected to other similar decisions and who anticipated the temptation ahead of time were more likely to behave honestly than those who did not take these steps.
“Unethical behavior is widespread across business, politics, education and sports,” Fishbach said. “Organizations that want to improve ethical conduct can help by encouraging people to see the cumulative impact of small unethical acts and by offering cues that alert them to forthcoming temptations.”
One experiment placed business students in pairs acting as brokers for the buyer and seller of a historic New York brownstone. The seller wanted to preserve the property; the buyer wanted to demolish it to build a hotel. Seller brokers were instructed to sell only to buyers committed to saving the brownstone, while buyer brokers were incentivized to conceal their client’s plan to develop the property.
Before negotiations, half of the students were asked to recall a time they had cheated or bent the rules to get ahead—an exercise that raised their awareness of ethical temptation. Only 45 percent of those who reflected on ethics ahead of time behaved unethically during the negotiation. By contrast, 67 percent of students who were not prompted to anticipate temptation lied to close the deal.
In workplace scenarios, similar patterns emerged. Participants who completed a brief writing exercise that asked them to anticipate an ethical dilemma and who evaluated a set of six related ethical situations at once were less likely to endorse behaviors such as stealing office supplies, calling in sick when well, or intentionally working slowly to avoid extra tasks. Considering multiple dilemmas together—creating a broad decision frame—helped participants identify a pattern of behavior and link a single action to longer-term consequences.
Put simply, the research shows that people are more likely to do the wrong thing when they treat a dishonest act as a one-off and fail to anticipate the temptation beforehand. Anticipation alone was not enough; it reduced dishonest behavior primarily when people also identified the decision as part of a larger pattern of choices.
The findings offer practical steps for policy makers, educators and employers who want to reduce unethical behavior. Organizations can design simple interventions—such as pre-trip emails reminding employees about expense rules and warning them that the temptation to inflate claims can recur—to help employees resist dishonest impulses. Reminders that emphasize the repeated nature of the temptation and the cumulative consequences of small dishonest acts can strengthen self-control.
Source: Susan Guibert, University of Chicago
Image credit: Orietta.sberla. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)
Original research: Sheldon, O. J., & Fishbach, A. “Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Published online May 22, 2015. DOI: 10.1177/0146167215586196.
Abstract
Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically
Ethical dilemmas create a self-control conflict between immediate gains from dishonest behavior and long-term benefits from honesty. Thus, strategies that enhance self-control for health or financial goals may also improve ethical choices. Across four studies, this research shows that anticipating a temptation promotes honesty only when people can identify the conflict—specifically when they consider several related decisions together (a broad decision frame) or feel a strong connection to their future self. The authors demonstrate these interaction effects in negotiation tasks, laboratory measures, and workplace dilemmas, concluding that both conflict identification and temptation anticipation are necessary preconditions for ethical decision making.
“Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically” by Oliver J. Sheldon and Ayelet Fishbach. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Published online May 22, 2015. DOI: 10.1177/0146167215586196.