The Effects of Anticipated Regret on the Whistleblowing Decision

Abstract

This article incorporates two emotion-based psychology theories into the study of whistleblowing. Particularly, it studies how one's predicted regret may differ when one is cued in to possible regret effects associated with either blowing the whistle or staying silent. Ethical scenarios with two moral intensity levels and two wrongdoing types were manipulated. Analysis of variance results based on subjects' predicted regret scores as well as subjects' descriptions of what the regret would be related to indicate several significant interactions. Findings suggest that individuals think about regret differently in a whistleblowing context as opposed to a silent observer context.

Keywords:

• whistleblowing
• emotion
• regret

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Data may be obtained from the author with permission. I thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor, Gerry Koocher, for valuable comments. I also thank my dissertation committee at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, for their guidance and support of this study - Dr. Paul Shoemaker, Dr. Linda Ruchala, Dr. Fred Luthans, and Dr. Walter Stroup.