Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2025
06:18
The Collective Trust Game: An Online Group Adaptation of the Trust Game Based on the HoneyComb Paradigm
Published on: October 20, 2022
2.1K
Psychological constraint on unethical behavior in team-based competition
Yi Zhu1, Lijing Zheng2, Yu Hu3
1School of Early-Childhood Education, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Frontiers in Psychology
|November 30, 2023
Summary
Group competition reduces unethical behavior compared to individual competition. Collective efficacy further curbed unethical actions within teams, offering insights into group dynamics and ethical decision-making.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Organizational Behavior
- Ethics
Background:
- Unethical behavior research is extensive, yet the impact of group competition on individual actions remains under-explored.
- Social learning theory provides a framework for understanding how group dynamics influence ethical conduct.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how group-based competition influences individual unethical behavior within teams.
- To examine the moderating role of collective efficacy in group-based competition contexts.
Main Methods:
- Three studies were conducted: two laboratory experiments and one field study involving bank employees.
- Participants engaged in group-based or individual-based competition with monetary incentives.
- Data collection included experimental manipulation and self-reported measures of unethical behavior and collective efficacy.
Main Results:
- Group-based competition resulted in fewer unethical behaviors compared to individual-based competition.
- Unlike individual competition, group competition showed no significant difference in unethical behaviors between winning and losing conditions.
- Collective efficacy was negatively associated with unethical behaviors in group-based competition settings.
Conclusions:
- Collective efficacy acts as a crucial factor in mitigating unethical behavior within group-based competitive environments.
- Findings contribute to understanding how group experiences shape ethical decision-making and behavior.
Related Concept Videos
01:08Obedience
32.9K
According to obedience research, we may harm others under the forceful pressures of an authority figure (Milgram, 1974). How about if the inappropriate orders were delivered with less force? The increasing interdependence between nurses and physicians compelled Hofling and his colleagues to explore nurses’ reactions to a potentially harmful medical request made by the perceived authority figure, the doctor (Hofling, Brotzman, Dalrymple, Graves, & Pierce, 1966). In this situation,...
32.9K
01:37Social Loafing
34.8K
Another way in which a group presence can affect performance is social loafing—the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks (Karau & Williams, 1993). Essentially individual group members loaf and let other group members pick up the slack. Because each individual’s efforts cannot be evaluated,...
34.8K
01:14Fundamental Attribution Error
12.9K
According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is...
12.9K
04:49Robbers Cave
14.3K
During the 1950s, the landmark Robbers Cave experiment demonstrated that when groups must compete with one another, intergroup conflict, hostility, and even violence may result. At the Oklahoman summer camp, two troops of boys—termed the Rattlers and the Eagles—took part in a week-long tournament. During this time, their negativity culminated in derogatory name-calling, fistfights, and even vandalism and destruction of property. However, this work also revealed that such tension...
14.3K
00:52Social Proof
27.7K
Social proof is a form of persuasion based on comparison and conformity. People compare their behavior and actions to what others are doing and will change to conform to do what their peers do.
27.7K
02:20Milgram's Obedience to Authority
6.4K
Obedience to authority is classically demonstrated in a more famous series of social psychology experiments performed by Stanley Milgram. He was a social psychology professor at Yale who was influenced by the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal. Eichmann’s defense for the atrocities he committed was that he was “just following orders.”
6.4K