社会距离与不当行为传染:一个实验研究

Social Distance and Misbehavior Contagion:An Experimental Research

本文使用实验室实验研究社会距离对侵占这一不当行为传染的影响。我们通过对比同一被试前后两次决策的差异来捕捉侵占行为的传染,同时基于不当行为的不道德性和风险性特征,针对性地提出观点距离和风险距离等不同维度的社会距离,设计了相应的度量方式,将其作为决策参考信息提供给被试,从社会身份的角度解读不当行为传染背后的微观机制。结果表明:首先,相对于单一类型的社会距离信息,被试获得多种类型的社会距离信息时,侵占的传染受到更加显著的抑制。其次,观点距离越大,即被试间观点分歧越大,侵占传染率越低;而风险距离越大,即被试越偏好风险,侵占传染率越高。最后,两种社会距离信息的引入均对侵占行为的增长有较为明显的抑制作用。

This paper designs a laboratory experiment to study the impact of social distance on misbehavior contagion.We capture the embezzlement contagion behavior by comparing two decision choices made by the same subject in each period.Meanwhile,since misbehavior is unethical and risky,we propose two different kinds of social distance,namely view distance and risk distance,and put up with the corresponding ways to characterize them,trying to figure out the micro-mechanism behind misbehavior contagion from the perspective of social identity.The results show that,firstly,multiple types of social distance information significantly inhibit the contagion of embezzlement than a single type of distance information.Secondly,the greater the view distance,the greater the divergence of views between the subjects and their peers and thus the lower the rate of embezzlement contagion.However,the greater the risk distance,the more risk-prone the subjects are relative to their peers,the higher the rate of embezzlement.Finally,the introduction of both types of social distances can effectively restrain the growth of embezzlement.