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The Influence of Media Cue Multiplicity on Deceivers and Those Who Are Deceived

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Abstract

We extend prior research of deceitful behavior by studying the reactions of those who are targets of deception and how a specific attribute of communication media, cue multiplicity, influences such reactions. We report on a laboratory experiment involving dyads asked to engage in a stock share purchase exercise. We find that when a broker is perceived to act deceitfully by the buyer, the buyer reacts with negative affect (anger) which provokes subsequent acts of revenge against the broker. Importantly, we find that media with higher cue multiplicity attenuate buyer anger as well as lessen the propensity for the buyer to seek retaliatory acts of revenge. We further find that moral anger mediates the effect of buyers’ perceived deception on revenge.

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Notes

  1. Our use of the term is consistent with Hughes’ (1995) definition of moral anger as a reactive attitude characterized in part by the belief that a moral subject has been wrongfully harmed.

  2. We make a distinction between moral anger and positive affect based on the most commonly used typology of emotions consisting of discrete emotions where each reflects an underlying positive or negative emotional state (Diener et al. 1995). Each discrete emotion is unipolar and, as a result, different emotions can be prompted to varying degrees dependent upon stimuli. This also leads to a unipolarity of the underlying positive and negative emotional states. Thus, a negative emotional state is not necessarily the polar opposite of a positive state. There exists a degree of opposition (a happy person tends not to also be sad), but there also is not complete mutual exclusivity. A person may simultaneously experience a number of emotions, both positive and negative, in reaction to a stimuli or an event. To summarize, emotions are diverse, multifaceted, and complex in their occurrence, but can be effectively conceived and measured under a more parsimonious categorization of a positive/negative duality. This is represented in our research model by two constructs—moral anger and positive affect—where each encompasses a number of specific emotions experienced by the potential deceived.

  3. F is calculated as (R 2full  − R 2submodel )/[(1 − R 2full )/df] where the submodel is the model in Fig. 2.

  4. The four-step procedure is (1) Regress the potential mediator on the independent variable; (2) Regress the dependent variable on the independent variable; (3) Regress the dependent variable on both the independent variable and the potential mediator; and (4) Examine the coefficient of the independent variable from the previous steps (Baron and Kenny 1986).

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  1. David Jingjun Xu

    Present address: Department of Finance, Real Estate, & Decision Sciences, W. Frank Barton School of Business, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount St, Wichita, KS, 67260, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Management Information Systems, Sauder School of Business, The University of British Columbia, 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

    Ronald T. Cenfetelli

  2. Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Division, Sauder School of Business, The University of British Columbia, 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

    Karl Aquino

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Xu, D.J., Cenfetelli, R.T. & Aquino, K. The Influence of Media Cue Multiplicity on Deceivers and Those Who Are Deceived. J Bus Ethics 106, 337–352 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1000-0

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