Are wrongdoers with high hierarchy more likely to be subjected to negative gossip? An attributional perspective

Purpose Some scholars argue that wrongdoers with high hierarchical levels are less likely to be subjected to negative gossip in comparison to wrongdoers with low hierarchical levels, others hold the opposing view. To reconcile these conflicting views, we explored whether wrongdoers’ hierarchical levels were associated with observers’ negative gossip behavior and in what manner, from an attributional perspective. Design/methodology/approach Two different experiments were conducted with 200 and 240 participants respectively, all of whom were from China. This study conducted two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping approach to test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that the direction of the effect of wrongdoers’ hierarchical levels on observers’ negative gossip behavior is dependent on the hierarchical type (i.e. power hierarchy and status hierarchy). When the hierarchical type is a power hierarchy, the wrongdoers’ hierarchical levels positively affect the observers’ negative gossip behavior due to the observers’ increased intentionality attributions and unethical perception; when the hierarchical type is a status hierarchy, the wrongdoers’ hierarchical levels have a negative effect on the observers’ negative gossip behavior, due to the observers’ inhibiting intentionality attributions and unethical perception. Originality/value These results reconcile previous inconsistent conclusions and establish a theoretical reference on the mechanism in which different types of wrongdoers’ hierarchy have differential impacts on observers’ judgment and behaviors.