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Introduction
According to Transparency International (TI, 2009), corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption can occur anywhere (e.g., companies, government, and civil society), can involve anyone (e.g., politicians, officials, and the public), and can include behaviors such as public workers demanding or receiving money or favors in exchange for services, officials granting jobs or contracts to family or friends, and companies or individuals bribing officials to obtain lucrative agreements or advantages in accessing services (TI, 2009).
The ethical, social, political, and economic implications of corruption have led the scientific community to become interested in studying it and to put forth explanations for it. The study of corruption requires an interdisciplinary approach. Disciplines such as political science, sociology, history, anthropology, economics, and psychology analyze the phenomenon to determine its ontological bases, processes, and intrinsic dynamics, as well as its impact on society.
A psychological approach to corruption is fundamental, since a corrupt act is a human behavior and as such has analyzable psychological components. In this regard, corrupt behavior is a particular type of dishonest or unethical conduct, as it involves a transgression of social norms and rules. However, unlike other dishonest behaviors (e.g., deception or lying), a corrupt act involves the abuse of power and is considered more severe due to the consequences it has at the individual, group, and societal levels (Modesto & Pilati, 2020). Therefore, psychological research on this type of behavior, together with the study of the associated individual, interpersonal and group psychological variables, is essential both to understand its nature and to implement anti-corruption policies.
Individual psychological variables, such as narcissism, psychopathy and machiavellianism (Gu et al., 2021; Nugraha & Etikariena, 2021; Zhao et al., 2016), dispositional greed (Li et al., 2023), and beliefs in a just world (Modesto et al., 2020), represent relatively stable patterns of thinking and behavior that may increase the likelihood of corrupt acts. It has also been reported that power can foster corruption, either mediated by individual traits (Hu et al., 2024) or by cultural factors (Cai et. al., 2024). Interpersonal variables, such as personal control and reciprocity (Su et al., 2023) and social value orientation (De Waele et al., 2021), may justify and encourage participation in corrupt behavior in pursuit of...