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Money, Emotions, and Ethics Across Individuals and Countries

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  • Long Wang
  • J. Murnighan

Abstract

This article presents two separate but closely related studies. We used a first sample to investigate the relationships among individuals’ reports of their income and their subjective well-being, and their approval of unethical behavior in 27 countries and a second sample to investigate the relationship between corruption in 55 countries and their populace’s aggregated feelings of subjective well-being (happiness). Analysis of data from 27,762 working professionals showed that, although reported feelings of subjective well-being were negatively related to their approval of unethical behaviors, income was positively related to their approval of unethical behaviors. In addition, the effects for feelings of subjective well-being were particularly strong for high-income people. Analyses also showed that, after controlling for economic development and other country-level factors, corruption was negatively related to a country’s feelings of happiness. These findings suggest that feelings of subjective well-being may lead to more ethical, less corrupt behavior and that the tolerance of unethical, corrupt behavior may lead to less collective happiness and subjective well-being. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Long Wang & J. Murnighan, 2014. "Money, Emotions, and Ethics Across Individuals and Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 163-176, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:125:y:2014:i:1:p:163-176
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1914-9
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    3. James Andreoni & Nikos Nikiforakis & Jan Stoop, 2017. "Are the Rich More Selfish than the Poor, or Do They Just Have More Money? A Natural Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 23229, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2015. "A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 808, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Zhao, Huanhuan & Zhang, Heyun & He, Wen & Chen, Ning, 2020. "Subjective well-being and moral disengagement in Chinese youths: The mediating role of malicious envy and the moderating role of Honesty–Humility," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    6. Wang, Long, 2019. "Creativity as a pragmatic moral tool," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-13.
    7. Liezel Alsemgeest, 2022. "The truth will set you free: the perception of South African financial advisors regarding clients' truthfulness when sharing information," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(3), pages 221-231, September.
    8. Elodie Gentina & Thomas Li-Ping Tang & Qinxuan Gu, 2018. "Do Parents and Peers Influence Adolescents’ Monetary Intelligence and Consumer Ethics? French and Chinese Adolescents and Behavioral Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 115-140, August.

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