Date of Award
2-2013
Document type
dissertation
Access Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Psychology
First Advisor
Ronnie Janoff-Bulman
Second Advisor
Linda Isbell
Third Advisor
Robert Marx
Subject Categories
Psychology
Abstract
Does power lead to corruption (Kipnis, 1972), and if so, why? Here, a novel mechanism is proposed for understanding the complex relationship between power and corruption by incorporating recent work on morality (Janoff-Bulman, Sheikh, & Hepp, 2009). By bridging the power, self-regulation, and morality literatures we proposed that powerful individuals, because of their approach tendencies, are oriented more towards moral prescriptions or “shoulds” and thus focus more on moral acts and moral intentions while minimizing the importance of moral proscriptions (neglect pathway). We proposed an alternative path to corruption for powerholders via moral self-regard. Powerholders, because of their approach-based moral focus, would experience an automatic boost of implicit moral self-regard that would license future immorality. In three studies we found suggestive evidence that the approach tendencies of participants primed with power maximized the role of good moral acts and intentions and minimized the impact of moral transgressions, because the individual’s monitoring system focused on and valued instances of moral successes rather than moral failures (neglect pathway). We did not find support for the moral self-regard pathway.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/6wyw-gz32
Recommended Citation
Rock, Mindi Sara, "New Insights into Corruption: Paradoxical Effects of Approach-Orientation for Powerholders" (2013). Open Access Dissertations. 702.
https://doi.org/10.7275/6wyw-gz32
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/702