Whistleblowing Paradigms

Operationalizing whistleblowing in a valid paradigm is an important yet challenging endeavor. In the present article, we review four categories of whistleblowing paradigms—scenario studies, autobiographical recalls, immersive behavioral paradigms, and economic games—and discuss how they capture the definitory features of whistleblowing. Moreover, we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each paradigm along selected psychometric criteria. Our review suggests that each of these paradigms comes with individual strength and weaknesses regarding the robustness against socially desirable responding, their efficiency, and whether or not they avoid using deception. We call for future research to conduct multi-method studies combining the four categories of whistleblowing paradigms within the same sample in order to test their convergence empirically

Context Dependency as a Predictor of Replicability

We scrutinize the argument that unsuccessful replications—and heterogeneous effect sizes more generally—may reflect an underappreciated influence of context characteristics. Notably, while some of these context characteristics may be conceptually irrelevant (as they merely affect psychometric properties of the measured/manipulated variables), others are conceptually relevant as they qualify a theory. Here, we present a conceptual and analytical framework that allows researchers to empirically estimate the extent to which effect size heterogeneity is due to conceptually relevant versus irrelevant context characteristics. According to this framework, contextual characteristics are conceptually relevant when the observed heterogeneity of effect sizes cannot be attributed to psychometric properties. As an illustrative example, we demonstrate that the observed heterogeneity of the “moral typecasting” effect, which had been included in the ManyLabs 2 replication project, is more likely attributable to conceptually relevant rather than irrelevant context characteristics, which suggests that the psychological theory behind this effect may need to be specified. In general, we argue that context dependency should be taken more seriously and treated more carefully by replication research

Explaining third-party reactions in interpersonal conflicts

When people witness conflicts in their group, they can react in one of the following ways: (a) support one of the involved parties, (b) reconcile the conflict, (c) escalate the conflict, or (d) remain neutral and passive. These reactions can be conceptualized as social roles. Building on the assumption that role-taking in conflicts is intricately intertwined with the moral self-concept, the present research aims at testing three empirical hypotheses. First, taking a moral role is predicted by individual differences in the general relevance of a moral self-concept. Second, taking a moral role increases the situational moral self-concept. Third, the more relevant the general moral self-concept for an actor, the higher the situational moral self-concept increase after moral role-taking. Results from three studies using both experimental and correlational designs (N = 961) support these hypotheses

What makes revenge satisfactory: seeing the offender suffer or delivering a message?

"The present article investigates the conditions under which vengeful episodes are satisfactory for the victim/avenger. Two hypotheses are tested simultaneously: (1) Victims are satisfied if they see the offender suffer, even if this suffering was imposed by fate (“comparative suffering” hypothesis); (2) Victims are satisfied if the offender signals that he understands why revenge was imposed upon him (“understanding” hypothesis). A laboratory experiment is described in which the source of the offender’s suffering (revenge vs. fate) and the offender’s understanding for the cause of his suffering were varied. As an implicit measure of goal fulfillment, participants completed a lexical decision task that measured the relative accessibility of aggression-related words (compared to non-aggressive words). The results corroborate the understanding hypothesis: Participants showed higher levels of implicit goal fulfillment if they decided to take revenge and if the offender signaled understanding for the vengeful response. The findings are discussed with regard to the question what people hope to achieve when they take revenge." [author's abstract

Downstream Consequences of Post-Transgression Responses: A Motive-Attribution Framework

Victims commonly respond to experienced wrongdoing by punishing or forgiving the transgressor. While much research has looked at predictors and immediate consequences of these post-transgression responses, comparably less research has addressed the conditions under which punishment or forgiveness have positive or negative downstream consequences on the victim–transgressor relationship. Drawing from research on Social Value Orientation (SVO), we argue that both forgiveness and punishment can be rooted in either prosocial (i.e., relationship- or other-oriented), individualistic (i.e., self-oriented), or competitive (i.e., harm-oriented) motives pursued by the victim. Furthermore, we posit that downstream consequences of forgiveness and punishment crucially depend on how the transgressor interprets the victim’s response. The novel motive-attribution framework presented here highlights the importance of alignment between a victim’s motives and a transgressor’s motive attributions underlying post-transgression responses. This framework thus contributes to a better understanding of positive and negative dynamics following post-transgression interactions

No harm in being self-corrective: Self-criticism and reform intentions increase researchers' epistemic trustworthiness and credibility in the eyes of the public

Science should be self-correcting. However, researchers often hesitate to admit errors and to adopt reforms in their own work. In two studies (overall N = 702), we test whether scientific self-criticism and reform intentions expressed by researchers damage or rather improve their reputation in the eyes of the public (i.e. perceivers). Across both studies, such self-correction (compared to no self-correction) increases perceivers' epistemic trustworthiness ascriptions, credibility perceptions, and willingness to further engage with science. Study 2 revealed that these effects were largely driven by the no self-criticism condition. In addition, researchers' commitment to implementing reforms had positive effects and rejecting reforms had negative effects on perceptions, irrespective of the extent of these reforms. These findings suggest that researchers' fear that self-criticism and expressing reform intentions may damage their reputation may be unfounded

Among us: Fear of exploitation, suspiciousness, and social identity predict knowledge hiding among researchers

Knowledge hiding in academia—the reluctance to share one’s ideas, materials or knowledge with other researchers—is detrimental to scientific collaboration and harms scientific progress. In three studies, we tested whether (a) knowledge hiding can be predicted by researchers’ latent fear of being exploited (i.e., victim sensitivity), whether (b) this effect is mediated by researchers’ suspiciousness about their peers, and whether (c) activating researchers’ social identity alleviates or rather amplifies this effect. Study 1 (N = 93) shows that victim-sensitive researchers whose social identity as a “researcher” has been made salient are particularly prone to knowledge hiding. Study 2 (N = 97) helps explaining this effect: activating a social identity increases obstructive self-stereotyping among researchers. Study 3 (N = 272) replicates the effect of victim sensitivity on knowledge hiding via suspiciousness. Here, however, the effects of the same social identity activation were less straightforward. Together, these findings suggest that knowledge hiding in science can be explained by victim sensitivity and suspiciousness, and that making researchers’ social identity salient might even increase it in certain contexts

The virus of distrust: How one victim-sensitive group member can affect the entire group's outcomes

Victim sensitivity (VS) is a personality trait conceptualized as the expectation of being exploited by others. Previous research has shown that one highly victim-sensitive group member can negatively impact the entire group's outcomes. In the present research, we investigate boundary conditions and mechanisms underlying this effect. Study 1 (N = 134 individuals, 40 groups) shows that the VS score of the most victim-sensitive group member negatively predicts a group's performance, particularly when the group's collective conscientiousness is high. Study 2 (N = 135 individuals, 45 groups) shows that groups that include one (compared to no) victim-sensitive group member perform worse, especially when the task is perceived as requiring mutual trust. Study 3 (N = 234) confirms that expressing VS explicitly reduces cooperation within the group. These findings suggest that the virus of distrust can spread quickly and may have detrimental consequences on group performance and intragroup cooperation

Making sense of punishment: Transgressors' interpretation of punishment motives determines the effects of sanctions

Punishment is expected to have an educative, behaviour-controlling effect on the transgressor. Yet, this effect often remains unattained. Here, we test the hypothesis that transgressors' inferences about punisher motives crucially shape transgressors' post-punishment attitudes and behaviour. As such, we give primacy to the social and relational dimensions of punishment in explicating how sanctions affect outcomes. Across four studies using different methodologies (N = 1189), our findings suggest that (a) communicating punishment respectfully increases transgressor perceptions that the punisher is trying to repair the relationship between the transgressor and their group (relationship-oriented motive) and reduces perceptions of harm-oriented and self-serving motives, and that (b) attributing punishment to relationship-oriented (vs. harm/self-oriented, or even victim-oriented) motives increases prosocial attitudes and behaviour. This research consolidates and extends various theoretical perspectives on interactions in justice settings, providing suggestions for how best to deliver sanctions to transgressors