Publication:
New Insights into Corruption: Paradoxical Effects of Approach-Orientation for Powerholders

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dc.contributor.advisorRonnie Janoff-Bulman
dc.contributor.advisorLinda Isbell
dc.contributor.advisorRobert Marx
dc.contributor.authorRock, Mindi Sara
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.date2023-09-23T07:47:29.000
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T19:53:01Z
dc.date.available2024-04-26T19:53:01Z
dc.date.issued2013-02-01
dc.description.abstractDoes 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.
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.departmentPsychology
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7275/6wyw-gz32
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/39152
dc.relation.urlhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1709&context=open_access_dissertations&unstamped=1
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subjectapproach
dc.subjectavoidance
dc.subjectcorruption
dc.subjectmorality
dc.subjectmotivation
dc.subjectpower
dc.subjectPsychology
dc.titleNew Insights into Corruption: Paradoxical Effects of Approach-Orientation for Powerholders
dc.typedissertation
dc.typearticle
dc.typedissertation
digcom.contributor.authorisAuthorOfPublication|email:mrock@psych.umass.edu|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst|Rock, Mindi Sara
digcom.identifieropen_access_dissertations/702
digcom.identifier.contextkey3937385
digcom.identifier.submissionpathopen_access_dissertations/702
dspace.entity.typePublication
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