The Effects of Thought Suppression on Ethical Decision Making: Mental Rebound Versus Ego Depletion
Although thought suppression is a commonly used self-control strategy that has far-reaching consequences, its effect on ethical decision making is unclear. Whereas ironic process theory suggests that suppressing ethics-related thoughts leads to mental rebounds of ethicality and decreased unethical b...
| Published in: | Journal of business ethics |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer Science + Business Media B. V
2018
|
| In: |
Journal of business ethics
|
| Further subjects: | B
Thought suppression
B Behavioral ethics B Ego depletion B Ironic process B Moral awareness |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Although thought suppression is a commonly used self-control strategy that has far-reaching consequences, its effect on ethical decision making is unclear. Whereas ironic process theory suggests that suppressing ethics-related thoughts leads to mental rebounds of ethicality and decreased unethical behavior, ego depletion theory suggests that thought suppression can lead to reduced self-control and increased unethical behavior. Integrating the two theories, I propose that the effect of thought suppression on unethical behavior hinges on the content of the suppressed thoughts. Participants who suppressed ethics-related [-unrelated] thoughts engaged in less [more] cyber bullying (Experiment 1), cheating (Experiments 2–3), and dishonesty (Experiment 4) compared to participants in the control conditions. Explicit (Experiment 3) and implicit (Experiment 4) moral awareness was found to mediate this moderated effect. Experiment 4 further demonstrated that suppressing ethics-related thoughts reduces self-control performance on a subsequent amoral task, but not on subsequent ethical decision making. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1573-0697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2944-2 |