Revisiting Gino et al.’s (2009) Contagion and Differentiation in Unethical Behavior: A Registered Replication and Extension

Individual behavior can be significantly influenced by the observed actions of others. The seminal Gino et al. (2009) Experiment 1 demonstrated that individuals are more likely to behave dishonestly after witnessing blatant dishonest behavior by an in-group member than by an out-group member. Findings from this experiment have guided multiple streams of research across psychology, organizational behavior, and experimental economics. However, because of the absence of a baseline condition, that is witnessing dishonesty by someone without any group signal, it remains unclear whether the original effect should be attributed to contagion within the in-group, differentiation from the out-group, or both. To address the identified design limitation of the original study and evaluate the robustness of the findings under current methodological standards, we propose a registered report project with two studies. Study 1 (N = 375) is a close replication and extension of Gino et al.'s (2009) seminal Experiment 1 with double the cell sizes. Students from a leading Norwegian university will be exposed to a cheating confederate with an in-group, out-group, or no-group signal and be allowed to cheat and increase their earnings without repercussions. Study 2 (N = 1,400) is a conceptual replication using a large-scale, incentive-aligned online experiment without using deception with U.S. American participants. Findings from the proposed research will bolster understanding of how group identities influence dishonesty norms and individual behavior, and disentangle the in-group contagion and out-group differentiation components underlying the general effect, advancing knowledge on the interplay between dishonesty, social cognition, and group identities.