Abstract

We hypothesized that the relationship between social class and the tendency of engaging in unethical behavior would be moderated by gender and the beneficiary of the behavior. In order to test the hypothesis, 250 participants (129 women) were randomly assigned either self-beneficiary or other-beneficiary condition and read unethical behavior scenarios. They were asked the extent to which they would engage in unethical behaviors and their subjective social class. According to the results, social class × gender × beneficiary interaction was statistically significant. Specifically, for male participants social class × beneficiary interaction was statistically significant. That is, upper-class men were more likely to behave unethically for themselves than others. However, for female participants the results showed no such difference. That is, upper-class women did not prefer self-beneficial unethical behaviors to other-beneficial unethical behaviors. The finding suggested that gender could be a critical factor with regard to social cognition and results of previous research about social class and social cognition could be moderated by gender.