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Relationships between moral evaluations of whistle-blowing and fairness-loyalty tradeoff in emerging adulthood

  • THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
  • 2023, 36(1), pp.133-151
  • DOI : 10.35574/KJDP.2023.3.36.1.133
  • Publisher : The Korean Society For Developmental Psychology
  • Research Area : Social Science > Psychological Science
  • Received : October 15, 2022
  • Accepted : February 28, 2023
  • Published : March 15, 2023

Eunhye Choung 1 Kyong-sun Jin 1

1성신여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

When a group engages in moral transgressions, its members face the whistleblower's dilemma: the conflict between remaining loyal to the group or standing up for justice and fairness. The present study investigates the relationships between moral evaluations of whistle-blowing behaviors and the fairness-loyalty tradeoff in emerging adults. The participants read scenarios in which a person blows the whistle on another person's moral transgression and evaluated the whistle-blowing behaviors. The scenarios differ in the levels of relationship closeness between the violator and whistle-blower, and the severity levels of the violations. The results suggest that a fairness-loyalty tradeoff predicts individuals' evaluations of whistle-blowing. Moreover, women evaluated whistle-blowing behaviors more positively than men. There were also significant effects of relationship closeness between the violator and whistle-blower on the severity of violations. These results reveal the psychological and contextual factors that affect individuals’ moral evaluations of whistle-blowing behavior.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.