Good people do bad things: How anxiety promotes unethical behavior through intuitive and automatic processing

Air Pollution, State Anxiety, and Unethical Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review

“…State anxiety leads individuals “to focus narrowly on their own basic needs and self-interest, which can cause them to be less mindful of principles that guide ethical and moral reasoning, thus leading them to behave unethically” (Kouchaki & Desai, 2015, p. 360; supported by five experiments). Similarly, Zhang, Shi, Zhou, Ma, and Tang (2020) theorized that “anxiety might increase unethical behavior because individuals who feel anxious are more likely to engage in intuitive automatic processing that shifts attention from moral standards to self-interest, and thus to behave unethically” (p. 720; supported by two experiments). Moreover, resisting unethical behaviors often requires self-control resources, which can be depleted by state anxiety (Fehr, Yam, He, Chiang, & Wei, 2017).…”

“…In addition, in only reanalyzing the studies from their previous publication, Heck et al (2020) overlooked other studies directly testing the link between state anxiety and unethical behavior (e.g., five experiments from Kouchaki & Desai, 2015; two experiments from Zhang et al, 2020). Despite the many studies demonstrating the link between state anxiety and unethical behavior (see Fig.…”

Polluted Psyche: Is the Effect of Air Pollution on Unethical Behavior More Physiological or Psychological?

“…Lu, Lee, Gino, and Galinsky (2018) theorized and found that air pollution positively predicted unethical behavior and that state anxiety was a mediating mechanism. Following Kouchaki and Desai (2015), they reasoned that the anxiety induced by air pollution can lead individuals “to focus narrowly on their own basic needs and self-interest, which can cause them to be less mindful of principles that guide ethical and moral reasoning, thus leading them to behave unethically” (p. 360; see also Zhang, Shi, Zhou, Ma, & Tang, 2020). The present research extends Lu et al’s (2018) work both theoretically and empirically.…”

Organizational Solutions to the Moral Risks of Policing

“…For example, research has demonstrated that emotional exhaustion can lead to increased incidence rates of depression and anxiety among police officers [ 14 ]. Other research, not on a police sample, showed a relationship between anxiety and increases in unethical behavior [ 15 ]. Thus, although not yet empirically validated, police executives should be concerned that officers who experience work-related anxiety may be more prone to engage in unethical behavior.…”