Revisiting bad apples and bad barrels: An experiment on person-setting interactions in corrupt decision making

• In Event: Morality and moral decision making

Abstract

The divide between individual (bad apples) and structural (bad barrels) explanations runs deep through corruption research. This divide could be bridged if individual corruption propensities and corruptive settings were studied in relation to one another, as proposed by the interactive worldview and situational action theory. A factorial experiment combined with a survey of public administration students (n = 577) tested hypothesized person-setting interactions in corrupt decision-making. Participants’ characteristics predicted corruption differently across various organizational moral climates. Personal morality and self-control were strongly and negatively predictive of corruption, and their combined effect increased in a criminogenic setting. Instrumental incentives were less salient than benevolent corruption which benefitted a likeable briber in neutral and criminogenic settings. The study concludes that corruption is better understood as an outcome of person-setting interaction. It is barrels that give meaning to bad apples and apples that give meaning to bad barrels.

Authors

• Andrzej Uhl, Cambridge University

• Beth Hardie, University of Cambridge