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Contents
- Abstract
- The Role of Affect in Ethical Decision Making
- Negative Affective Consequences of Predicted Unethical Behavior
- Positive Affective Consequences of Actual Unethical Behavior
- Overview of the Research
- Study 1: Affective Predictions
- Study 1a: Method
- Participants and design
- Procedure
- Manipulation
- Measures
- Pilot study
- Results and Discussion
- Study 1b: Method
- Participants
- Design and procedure
- Results and Discussion
- Criteria for Establishing the Cheater’s High
- Study 2
- Method
- Participants
- Procedure
- Results and Discussion
- Criterion 1
- Criterion 2
- Criterion 3
- Study 3: Ruling Out Self-Selection
- Method
- Participants
- Procedure
- Results and Discussion
- Criterion 1
- Criterion 2
- Criterion 3
- Study 4: Effects of Incentives
- Method
- Participants and design
- Procedure
- Problem-solving task
- Results and Discussion
- Suspicion
- Proportion of cheating participants
- Criterion 1
- Criterion 2
- Criterion 3
- Relief
- Study 5: Getting Away With It
- Method
- Participants
- Design and procedure
- Experimental manipulation
- Post-manipulation measures
- Results and Discussion
- Self-rated reliability
- Criterion 1
- Criterion 2
- Criterion 3
- Self-satisfaction
- General Discussion
- Theoretical Contributions
- Limitations
- Additional Directions for Future Research
- Conclusion
Figures and Tables
Abstract
Many theories of moral behavior assume that unethical behavior triggers negative affect. In this article, we challenge this assumption and demonstrate that unethical behavior can trigger positive affect, which we term a “cheater’s high.” Across 6 studies, we find that even though individuals predict they will feel guilty and have increased levels of negative affect after engaging in unethical behavior (Studies 1a and 1b), individuals who cheat on different problem-solving tasks consistently experience more positive affect than those who do not (Studies 2–5). We find that this heightened positive affect does not depend on self-selection (Studies 3 and 4), and it is not due to the accrual of undeserved financial rewards (Study 4). Cheating is associated with feelings of self-satisfaction, and the boost in positive affect from cheating persists even when prospects for self-deception about unethical behavior are reduced (Study 5). Our results have important implications for models of ethical decision making, moral behavior, and self-regulatory theory.
About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
—Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon
I was heady with happiness. Since I hadn’t yet had my...