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Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Gino, F; Ayal, S; Ariely, D
Published in: Journal of economic behavior & organization
September 2013

In three experiments, we propose and find that individuals cheat more when others can benefit from their cheating and when the number of beneficiaries of wrongdoing increases. Our results indicate that people use moral flexibility to justify their self-interested actions when such actions benefit others in addition to the self. Namely, our findings suggest that when people's dishonesty would benefit others, they are more likely to view dishonesty as morally acceptable and thus feel less guilty about benefiting from cheating. We discuss the implications of these results for collaborations in the social realm.

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Published In

Journal of economic behavior & organization

DOI

ISSN

0167-2681

Publication Date

September 2013

Volume

93

Related Subject Headings

  • Economics
  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 3502 Banking, finance and investment
  • 1403 Econometrics
  • 1402 Applied Economics
  • 1401 Economic Theory
 

Citation

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Gino, F., Ayal, S., & Ariely, D. (2013). Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2013.04.005
Gino, Francesca, Shahar Ayal, and Dan Ariely. “Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others.Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 93 (September 2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2013.04.005.
Gino F, Ayal S, Ariely D. Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others. Journal of economic behavior & organization. 2013 Sep;93.
Gino, Francesca, et al. “Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others.Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 93, Sept. 2013. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2013.04.005.
Gino F, Ayal S, Ariely D. Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others. Journal of economic behavior & organization. 2013 Sep;93.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of economic behavior & organization

DOI

ISSN

0167-2681

Publication Date

September 2013

Volume

93

Related Subject Headings

  • Economics
  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 3502 Banking, finance and investment
  • 1403 Econometrics
  • 1402 Applied Economics
  • 1401 Economic Theory