Research On Corruption Tolerance Based On Interpretative Level Theory

Corruption is a phenomenon that exists in every country of the world, both developed countries and developing countries, and whether it is in mature market economy or in the process of economic system transition. At present, although corruption has been concerned in the field of psychology, but the studies are still less to the tolerance of corruption. In 2014, the issue "which psychological factors affect public tolerance of corruption" was been proposed by the Journal of Psychological Science, which reminds us to be concerned about the tolerance of psychology.Based on the construal level theory, we intend to explore whether different construal levels will affect public tolerance of corruption, this paper is divided into three research parts. Study 1is to explore the common people’s basic attitudes towards corruption, therefore we can grasp the tolerance of corruption as a whole. Study 2 is to understand public attitudes towards corruption,using in-depth interviews. We hope to know the reason that why people differ in their judging criteria of corruption, and what factors will influence the public tolerance of corruption, and what differences exist. Through analyzing the Study 1 and Study 2 we find that there may be existing the following tendency about the tolerance of corruption: People have lower tolerance on corruption when they are in far psychological distance, and people have higher tolerance for corruption when they are in relatively close psychological distance. So Study 3 will be directly to explore the influence about the construal levels to the tolerance of corruption, through direct manipulation of construal level and indirect manipulation of construal level, respectively explore the influence of construal levels to the tolerance of corruption.The results show that:(1)Ordinary people hold lower tolerance of corruption for others, but they have high tolerance of corruption for themselves.(2)Ordinary people have high tolerance of corruption for the people who they care about, than for themselves.(3)Male have more bribery possibility than female, gender difference significant, p=0.024<0.05.(4)Corruption is generally and the situation is serious, and anti-corruption still needs to strengthen.(5)Interest must be considered when people judge corruption.(6)The main effect of corruption story significant,p=0.002<0.05. The interaction effect is remarkable between stories and social distance,p=0.047<0.05.(7)There are lower score of corruption story in high construal level than low construal level, p=0.027<0.05. The main effect of corruption story significant, p=0.021<0.05.The following conclusions can be drawn from serial studies mentioned above:(1)Ordinary people hold lower tolerance of corruption for others, but they have high tolerance of corruption for themselves.(2)Male have more bribery possibility than female.(3)Social distance has an impact on the tolerance of corruption. People have low toleranceof corruption when they are in far social distance. People have high tolerance of corruption when they are in close social distance.(4)The construal level has an effect on the tolerance of corruption. People have low tolerance of corruption when they are in high construal level. People have high tolerance of corruption when they are in low construal level.