Honor Among Students: The Effects of Punishment Severity on Whistleblowing.

IF 1.8 3区心理学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Journal of Social Psychology Pub Date : 2026-06-05 DOI:10.1080/00224545.2026.2678878

Sophie Clayton, Stefen Beeler-Duden, Udeyvir Cheema, Amrisha Vaish

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Abstract

The current study used a classroom cheating paradigm to investigate how severity of punishment affects the rate at which bystanders report a transgression to an authority. Participants were asked to read and memorize a literary passage before taking a memory and comprehension quiz about its contents. The instructions included one of three conditions: low, medium, or high severity of punishment for cheating during the quiz. During the memorization and testing time, a confederate student cheated by using their phone. As predicted, participants' rate of reporting the observed cheating to the proctor was significantly different across the punishment conditions, with participants reporting least often in the high severity punishment condition. These findings suggest that severe punishments for transgressions may discourage whistleblowing behavior, highlighting the impact of punishment severity on whistleblowing decisions. Future work should further explore the motivations underlying this effect to elaborate on the link between punishment severity and whistleblowing.

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学生荣誉感：惩罚程度对举报行为的影响。

目前的研究使用课堂作弊的范例来调查惩罚的严重性如何影响旁观者向权威报告违规行为的比率。参与者被要求阅读和记忆一篇文学文章，然后对其内容进行记忆和理解测试。该指示包括三种情况中的一种：在测试中作弊的惩罚程度低、中或高。在记忆和测试期间，一名同组学生用手机作弊。正如预测的那样，在不同的惩罚条件下，参与者向监考人员报告所观察到的作弊行为的比率显著不同，在严厉的惩罚条件下，参与者报告作弊行为的频率最低。这些研究结果表明，对违规行为的严厉惩罚可能会抑制举报行为，突出了惩罚程度对举报决定的影响。未来的工作应该进一步探索这种影响背后的动机，以详细说明惩罚严厉程度与举报之间的联系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Social Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

4.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Since John Dewey and Carl Murchison founded it in 1929, The Journal of Social Psychology has published original empirical research in all areas of basic and applied social psychology. Most articles report laboratory or field research in core areas of social and organizational psychology including the self, attribution theory, attitudes, social influence, consumer behavior, decision making, groups and teams, sterotypes and discrimination, interpersonal attraction, prosocial behavior, aggression, organizational behavior, leadership, and cross-cultural studies. Academic experts review all articles to ensure that they meet high standards.