Do money and guilt primes affect the likelihood of theft by taking? Findings from a visualized scenario study

Abstract:In this article, we report on the results of two experimental manipulations in a visual scenario survey experiment. We explored to what extent a conceptual money and guilt priming task combined with random assignment to a manipulated scenario condition affects the likelihood of theft by taking and anticipated guilt. Data are taken from a region-wide convenience sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 3564). Six subgroups of participants are created based on two experimental manipulations. Firstly, before being presented with a visual scenario vignette depicting the act of stealing a small amount of money, survey participants are randomly assigned to a scrambled sentence test in which the concepts of money or guilt are primed. Secondly, each participant is again randomly assigned to either a visual scenario condition in which a witness is present or to a visual scenario condition in which no one is present. MANOVA is used to test the differences between the subgroups across two dependent variables simultaneously: the likelihood of theft by taking, and anticipated guilt. Results show no significant differences between the experimental conditions and the control condition for the dependent variables. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Publication year:2024

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