• DOI:10.1177/0146167213511825
• Corpus ID: 46043158

Underestimating Our Influence Over Others’ Unethical Behavior and Decisions

@article{Bohns2014UnderestimatingOI,
  title={Underestimating Our Influence Over Others’ Unethical Behavior and Decisions},
  author={Vanessa K. Bohns and M. Mahdi Roghanizad and Amy Z. Xu},
  journal={Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin},
  year={2014},
  volume={40},
  pages={348 - 362}
}

• V. Bohns, M. Roghanizad, Amy Z. Xu
• Published 28 February 2014
• Psychology
• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

We examined the psychology of “instigators,” people who surround an unethical act and influence the wrongdoer (the “actor”) without directly committing the act themselves. In four studies, we found that instigators of unethical acts underestimated their influence over actors. In Studies 1 and 2, university students enlisted other students to commit a “white lie” (Study 1) or commit a small act of vandalism (Study 2) after making predictions about how easy it would be to get their fellow students to do so. In Studies 3 and 4, online samples of participants responded to hypothetical vignettes, for example, about buying children alcohol and taking office supplies home for personal use. In all four studies, instigators failed to recognize the social pressure they levied on actors through simple unethical suggestions, that is, the discomfort actors would experience by making a decision that was inconsistent with the instigator’s suggestion.