Sharing is (Not) Caring? The Interactive Effects of Power and Psychological Distance on Tolerance of Unethical Behavior

Abstract

Despite the tremendous growth of Airbnb, various media have reported ethical misconduct occurring within the Airbnb context by both hosts and users. The current research seeks to examine the interactive effects of power (high vs. low) and psychological distance (close vs. distant) to explain individual tolerance of unethical behavior across two experimental studies for the case of Airbnb. Specifically, we propose that when an individual (i.e., an Airbnb host or user) feels powerless (vs. powerful), that individual will show a low level of tolerance to unethical behavior and tend to judge the ethical behavior more harshly. However, the effect of power will only emerge in the psychologically close condition (e.g., a host judging a host's unethical behavior), but not in the psychologically distant condition (e.g., a host judging a user's unethical behavior). Further, we establish that this interactive effect is mediated by feelings of empathy.