Dishonesty Is Contagious: Investigating the Domino Effect of Dysfunctional Customer Behaviors

Abstract

The interaction between dysfunctional customers and other customers can cause the domino effect (i.e., the dissemination of a dysfunctional client’s behavior to other nearby clients). However, it is not understood if this effect will manifest under certain levels of damage to the company. This study thus aims to verify if the amount of damage from the dysfunctional behavior can affect the probability of the domino effect. Through five experimental studies, we prove that the amount of damage influences the likelihood of dysfunctional behavior replication. Moreover, we found that this effect is explained by the acceptability of the dysfunctional behavior. We also identify that a consumer’s ethics level, perception of risk in replicating the behavior, and social distance acts as boundary conditions of the amount of damage effect on the probability of replicating the dysfunctional behavior.

The association between testosterone and unethical behaviours, and the moderating role of intrasexual competition

“…This measure was developed by Blais and Weber (2006; see Table 2) as part of their measure of domain‐specific risk‐taking (see Weber, Blais, & Betz, 2002 for the development of the initial longer version of the measure). This 6‐item measure was selected because it measures one’s general intention to engage in risky unethical behaviour, and has been shown to correlate with actual unethical behaviour in experimental settings (Telli, Espartel, Araujo, & Basso, 2020; Zimerman, Shalvi, & Bereby‐Meyer, 2014).…”

The Contagion of Donation Behaviors Changes Along With the Abatement of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Intertemporal Survey Experiment

“…While many donation-related studies have examined the impacts of positive social information on donation behavior, evidence regarding the impacts of negative social information on donation behavior remains scarce ( Dimant, 2019 ). This issue has been explored in relation to other psychosocial and behavioral domains, such as lying ( Telli et al, 2020 ) and corruption ( Dong et al, 2012 ). These studies show that negative social information can also be contagious ( Dimant, 2019 ).…”