Culture of Corruption? The Effects of Priming Corruption Images in a High Corruption Context

摘要

We examine what situational cues may influence corruption intentions of individuals in a high corruption context. We primed Brazilian participants with images related to corruption, but with different behavioral connotations (either images suggesting political corruption or images of a Malandro, a powerless antihero who blurs moral boundaries by breaking the law to survive). Corruption intentions increased in Studies 1 and 2 when individuals were primed with political corruption images, compared with a control condition. In Study 2, Brazilians who strongly identified with their country were more likely to endorse corruption scenarios, particularly when primed with Malandro images due to the dual activation of positive national symbols and morally ambiguous connotations. These findings highlight that conceptually related symbols within a cultural system can be linked to differential behavioral patterns. We outline some implications for corruption and cultural research, in particular, the need to study intracultural variability of psychological processes.