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  • Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

'Many Others Are Doing It, So Why Shouldn't I?': How Being in Larger Competitions Leads to More Cheating

By: Celia Chui, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino
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Abstract

In many spheres of life, from applying for a job to participating in an athletic contest to vying for a date, we face competition. Does the size of the competition pool affect our propensity to behave unethically in our pursuit of the prize? We propose that it does. Across four studies, we found that a larger (vs. smaller) number of competitors led participants to cheat more in a performance task to earn undeserved money. We also explored the psychological mechanisms of competition pool size to explain why and how being in a larger competition pool increases cheating. Our findings reveal a serial mediation pathway whereby having a larger number of competitors increases expectations of the absolute number of cheaters in the competition group, which heightens perceptions that cheating is an acceptable social norm, which leads to more cheating. We also examined and ruled out various alternative psychological mechanisms for this effect. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our finding that being in a large group of competitors can increase people’s propensity to cheat for personal gain.

Keywords

Unethical Behavior; Cheating; Competitors; Social Norms; Ethics; Behavior; Competition; Societal Protocols

Citation

Chui, Celia, Maryam Kouchaki, and Francesca Gino. "'Many Others Are Doing It, So Why Shouldn't I?': How Being in Larger Competitions Leads to More Cheating." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 164 (May 2021): 102–115.
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About The Author

Francesca Gino

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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  • When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
  • Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino
  • Institutionalized Entrepreneurship: Flagship Pioneering By: Gary Pisano and Francesca Gino
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