Differential impact of economic environment on high and low social class people unethical behavior

Do high social class (SES) individuals behave more unethically than low SES? Existing research remains inconclusive about the main effect of SES. We contend that the relationship between SES and unethical behavior is more nuanced and contingent on the immediate environment individuals reside in. Building on the social comparison literature, we argue that engagement in unethical behavior depends on one's reference point. As a result, high [low] SES individuals in comparison to low [high] SES cheat in affluent [impoverished] environments when their comparison is based on similar others. Using macroeconomic indicators of participants' living environment across 2 preregistered studies and 2 large scale archival studies comprising of more than 486,000 participants from 82 countries we find substantive support for our hypotheses. These results further the literature by explaining why high or low SES may engage in unethical behavior and underscore the nuanced effect of social class on unethical behavior.