Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Psychol Sci. 2017 Mar;28(3):297-306. doi: 10.1177/0956797616682026. Epub 2017 Jan 1.
Major forms of corruption constitute a strong threat to the functioning of societies. The most frequent explanation of how severe corruption emerges is the slippery-slope metaphor-the notion that corruption occurs gradually. While having widespread theoretical and intuitive appeal, this notion has barely been tested empirically. We used a recently developed paradigm to test whether severely corrupt acts happen gradually or abruptly. The results of four experimental studies revealed a higher likelihood of severe corruption when participants were directly given the opportunity to engage in it (abrupt) compared with when they had previously engaged in minor forms of corruption (gradual). Neither the size of the payoffs, which we kept constant, nor evaluations of the actions could account for these differences. Contrary to widely shared beliefs, sometimes the route to corruption leads over a steep cliff rather than a slippery slope.
主要形式的腐败对社会的运作构成了严重威胁。关于腐败如何严重发生的最常见解释是滑坡隐喻——即腐败是逐渐发生的观点。虽然这一观点在理论上和直观上具有广泛的吸引力，但几乎没有经过实证检验。我们使用最近开发的范式来检验严重的腐败行为是逐渐发生还是突然发生。四项实验研究的结果表明，当参与者直接有机会从事腐败行为（突然）时，他们从事严重腐败行为的可能性更高，而不是当他们之前从事过轻微形式的腐败行为（逐渐）时。我们保持不变的是薪酬的大小，以及对行为的评估，都不能解释这些差异。与普遍的看法相反，有时腐败的途径是一条陡峭的悬崖，而不是一个滑坡。
