The More I See It the Less I Want It: Sociotropic Corruption and (In)tolerance Towards Corruption in Contexts of Perceived Economic Crisis

Whether the widespread perception of corruption is associated with lower or higher tolerance towards corrupt practices remains an important research question. Considering that, in economic downturns, citizens may become particularly sensitive to corruption, this paper goes further by exploring how the relationship between perceived sociotropic corruption and tolerance towards corruption may be moderated by perceptions of economic crisis. Findings from Study 1 with a representative sample of the Portuguese population (N = 1020) indicate that the higher the perceived sociotropic corruption, the lower the tolerance for corruption and that the negative relationship between sociotropic corruption and tolerance for corruption is strengthened by an economic crisis perception. Study 2 (N = 120) experimentally explored these findings and provided preliminary evidence of greater intolerance towards corruption under high sociotropic corruption, especially when the economic crisis perception is salient. These results show how the salience of corruption practices might improve adherence to integrity normative expectations and how contextual factors might impact this process.