Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
Yale School of Management, Yale University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2017 Nov;113(5):671-696. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000093. Epub 2017 Jul 20.
Profit-seeking firms are stereotypically depicted as immoral and harmful to society. At the same time, profit-driven enterprise has contributed immensely to human prosperity. Though scholars agree that profit can incentivize societally beneficial behaviors, people may neglect this possibility. In 7 studies, we show that people see business profit as necessarily in conflict with social good, a view we call . Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that U.S. participants hold anti-profit views of real U.S. firms and industries. Study 3 shows that hypothetical organizations are seen as doing more harm when they are labeled "for-profit" rather than "non-profit," while Study 4 shows that increasing harm to society is viewed as a strategy for increasing a hypothetical firm's long-run profitability. Studies 5-7 demonstrate that carefully prompting subjects to consider the long run incentives of profit can attenuate anti-profit beliefs, while prompting short run thinking does nothing relative to a control. Together, these results suggest that the default view of profits is zero-sum. While people readily grasp how profit can incentivize firms to engage in practices that harm others, they neglect how it can incentivize firms to engage in practices that benefit others. Accordingly, people's stereotypes of profit-seeking firms are excessively negative. Even in one of the most market-oriented societies in history, people doubt the contributions of profit-seeking industry to societal progress. (PsycINFO Database Record
营利性企业通常被描绘为不道德的，对社会有害。与此同时，营利性企业也为人类繁荣做出了巨大贡献。尽管学者们一致认为利润可以激励对社会有益的行为，但人们可能忽视了这种可能性。在 7 项研究中，我们表明，人们认为企业利润必然与社会利益相冲突，我们称之为“利益冲突观”。研究 1 和 2 表明，美国参与者对美国真实企业和行业持有反利润观点。研究 3 表明，当假设的组织被贴上“营利”而不是“非营利”的标签时，它们被视为会造成更大的伤害，而研究 4 表明，增加对社会的伤害被视为增加假设企业长期盈利能力的策略。研究 5-7 表明，仔细提示被试考虑利润的长期激励作用可以减弱反利润信念，而提示短期思考与对照组相比没有任何作用。总之，这些结果表明，人们对利润的默认看法是零和的。虽然人们很容易理解利润如何激励企业从事伤害他人的行为，但他们忽视了利润如何激励企业从事有益于他人的行为。因此，人们对营利性企业的刻板印象过于消极。即使在历史上最具市场导向的社会之一，人们也对营利性行业对社会进步的贡献表示怀疑。
