The Influence Of Social Status Changes On Dishonest

Dishonesty is a behavior that violates social norms.The study of dishonest behavior is of great importance for the development of individuals,society,and even the country.Social rank is one of the most important factors influencing dishonest behavior.Social rank refers to the ranking of individuals in a given environment according to certain criteria(such as wealth,reputation,and political status);and social rank changes refer to changes in individuals’ status,wealth resources,or power.Previous research has focused on the effect of an individual’s relatively fixed social rank on dishonest behavior,while little research has focused on how changes in social rank are related to dishonest behavior.In fact,the social rank that an individual receives often changes to a greater or lesser extent,and this change not only affects the individual’s evaluation of himself or herself,but also influences the individual’s subsequent behavioral responses to a certain extent.It has been found that individuals with decreasing rank experience more negative emotions,experience less pro-social behavior(altruistic behavior,cooperative behavior,etc.),feel more threatened by higher self-evaluation,and engage in more deviant behavior.Therefore,we reasoned that lower social rank leads to negative emotions in individuals,which leads to an increase in dishonest behavior.In this study,a matrix reasoning contest(reputation-based social rank)and a token lottery contest(wealth)were conducted in a laboratory context to explore the effects of individual social rank and its changes on dishonest behavior by providing feedback on subjects’ specific rank ranking through 2rounds of contest,thereby artificially manipulating subjects’ reputation-based social rank and wealth-based social rank as a way to achieve manipulation of social rank itself and its changes.Experiment 1 initially explored the effect of social rank and its changes on individuals’ levels of dishonesty from different dimensions of social rank(reputation and wealth).Experiment 1a(N=87)explores the effect of reputation-based social rank and its changes on dishonest behavior.Experiment 1b(N=84)explored the effect of wealth-based social rank and its changes on dishonest behavior.Both used a 3 × 2mixed design,where social rank change(up/down/no change)was a between-subjects variable and the number of rounds to find different tasks(round 1/round 2)was a within-subjects variable.The dependent variable was the proportion of dishonesty(0-100%).Experiments 1a and 1b were used to manipulate the rank and its change by giving feedback on subject-specific rankings after a matrix reasoning contest and a lottery contest,respectively(2 rounds in total,2 ranking feedbacks).The indicator of dishonest behavior was the proportion of the 10 trials in which subjects reported finding 3 differences out of the 10 trials in which they could not find 3 differences,and the difference in the proportion of dishonesty before and after 2 rounds of the find-difference task was used as an indicator of the change in dishonest behavior.The results showed that(1)the main effect of social rank was significant,i.e.,the proportion of dishonesty was lower in mid-rank and high-rank individuals compared to low-rank individuals,and(2)the interaction between rank change and rounds was significant,with the proportion of dishonesty in the decreasing-rank group being significantly lower in round 1 than in round 2,and the proportion of dishonesty in the increasing-rank group being significantly higher in round 1 than in round 2.Experiment 2 further explored the role of emotion and self-affirmation in the effect of rank change on dishonest behavior separately.Experiment 2a(N=95)explored the role of emotions in this,and Experiment 2b(N=94)explored the role of self-affirmation in this.Experiment 2 followed essentially the same process as Experiment 1,with the only difference being that an emotional intervention(Experiment 2a)or self-affirmation(Experiment 2b)was required prior to completing Round 2 of the Find a Difference task.The results showed that the main effect of rank change was significant,and the change in dishonest behavior was significantly higher for the group with decreasing rank than for the group with increasing rank;the main effect of emotional intervention was significant,and the change in dishonest behavior was significantly lower for the group with emotional intervention than for the group without emotional intervention;self-affirmation moderated the effect of social rank change on emotional change and the effect of social rank change on the change in individual dishonest behavior,respectively.Specifically,for the declining group,the differences in dishonest behavior change and emotional change with and without self-affirmation were significant;on the contrary,for the rising group,the differences in dishonest behavior change and emotional change with and without self-affirmation were not significant.In summary,this study reveals the effect of two different dimensions of social rank(social rank based on reputation and wealth)and their changes on dishonest behavior.In addition,the study not only provides some new ideas to explore the relationship between changes in social rank and dishonest behavior,but also provides two solutions on how to mitigate the adverse effects from declining rank.