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Responses to observing others caught cheating: The role of schadenfreude

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2024

Daphna Motro*
Affiliation:
Frank G. Zarb School of Business, Department of Management & Entrepreneurship, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA
Benjamin G. Perkins
Affiliation:
Eller College of Management, Department of Management and Organizations, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Aleksander P. J. Ellis
Affiliation:
Eller College of Management, Department of Management and Organizations, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
*
Corresponding author: Daphna Motro; Email: [email protected]

Abstract

While unethical acts are common in the business world, we know little about how employees react when they observe coworkers caught engaging in unethical behavior. This is both theoretically and practically relevant, given that many supervisors take unethical behavior in the workplace very seriously. Drawing on appraisal theory, we argue that observing a coworker caught engaging in unethical behavior elicits feelings of schadenfreude. Then, this positive feeling spills over to a separate task and enhances performance. Finally, we suggest that trait empathy can weaken this effect because individuals with high trait empathy are more likely to understand the motivations of the person caught. Across two studies, our results showed that perpetrators getting caught increased schadenfreude among observers, which then increased their subsequent task performance. However, trait empathy did not significantly affect these results. Our work contributes to the literature on unethical behavior and emotions in the workplace.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.

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