Title: Affluent Ties, Relative Minds: A Relational Model for How the Socioeconomic Status of Network Contacts Affects Unethical Behavior
Speaker:  Jiyin Cao, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Host: Hengchen Dai , UCLA
When: 9:00-10:15 a.m., July 22, 2026, China Time
Language: Chinese
Where: Zoom
Register link: https://www.xcdsystem.com/iacmr/forms/index.cfm?ID=K7rmZjb

Abstract: 

Organizational research examining the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and unethical behavior has primarily adopted an individual-centric approach, focusing on how one’s own SES predicts misconduct. We shift this conversation by introducing a relational model of SES, proposing that connections to high-SES others can increase an individual’s unethical behavior over and above the effects of one’s own SES. Our relational model identifies a serial pathway that produces this effect. Having high-SES network ties leads individuals to perceive their contacts as having a generally loose approach to rules and norms. This perception of looseness then leads individuals to view the normative system as less rigid, i.e. to embrace moral relativism, which, in turn, fosters a greater propensity for unethical behaviors. Six studies provide convergent evidence across diverse designs (archival, field, quasi-experimental, and experimental), populations (CEOs, fulltime employees, online panel adults, student roommates), and cultures (U.S., China, India). Importantly, these effects held beyond the influence of homophily (one’s own SES), behavioral imitation (the observed unethical behavior of one’s contacts), and normalization of deviance (perceived acceptance of unethical behavior within the network). Collectively, our relational model of SES offers a novel and more comprehensive understanding of how SES influences unethical behavior.

Bio: 

Jiyin Cao is an Associate Professor in Management and the Area Head of Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. She received her Ph.D. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Before joining CUHK-Shenzhen, she was a tenured Associate Professor at Stony Brook University. Her research sits at the intersection of decision-making, social network, culture, and technology. Her work has appeared in leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Organizational Science, Psychological Science, Social Psychology and Personality Science, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.