Me?! Never! Social Distance as a Moderator of Other Contextual Factors on Responses to Ethical Scenarios

ABSTRACT The present research investigates how changes in the extent to which decision‐makers rely on concrete or abstract thinking (i.e., construal level) influence responses to ethical scenarios as well as the relationship between those responses and actual, recalled, unethical behavior. Using 18 different scenarios, across three studies, simultaneous changes in construal level are employed to reveal the importance of social distance—whether the decision‐maker is described as the self or a hypothetical stranger—as a moderator of the effects of other changes in construal level. Study 1 also investigates a potential alternative mechanism, and Study 2 provides evidence for the mediating role of thoughts that are associated with changes in considerations related to the means and activities required to behave unethically and the benefits of behaving unethically. In the final study, self‐reported prior bad behavior is compared to predictions about the same behaviors in order to investigate the role of construal level and social distance on the correlations between predicted and recalled unethical behavior. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the present research.