Rules are often installed in order to constrain unethical behavior. Rules can be framed either in specific (“Don’t accepts gifts from clients.”) or general terms (“Don’t engage in conflicts of interest.”). The current investigation examines the effect of specific and general rules on unethical behavior and how this effect depends on personal gain resulting from the unethical behavior. The results of three preregistered experiments suggest that both specific and general rules counteract the increase in unethical behavior induced by high personal gain. Although the results were not fully consistent across all studies, specific rules appear more successful in doing this than general rules. In Studies 1 and 3, when personal gain from unethical behavior was (extremely) high, specific rules were more successful in reducing unethical behavior than were general rules. Results of Study 2 suggest that the larger effect of specific rules (compared to general rules) is caused by specific rules preventing people from engaging in moral rationalizations that justify their unethical behavior. A meta-analysis across all studies confirms this overall pattern. This research contributes to theory on rules, ethical codes, and the influence of personal incentives from unethical behavior.

通常会安装规则以约束不道德的行为。规则可以具体（“不接受来自客户的礼物。”）或一般性术语（“不参与利益冲突”）来制定框架。当前的调查研究了特定规则和一般规则对不道德行为的影响，以及这种影响如何取决于不道德行为导致的个人利益。三个预先注册的实验的结果表明，特定规则和一般规则都抵消了因个人高收益引起的不道德行为的增加。尽管在所有研究中结果并不完全一致，但是特定的规则似乎比一般的规则更成功。在研究1和3中，当不道德行为带来的个人收益很高时，与一般规则相比，特定规则在减少不道德行为方面更为成功。研究2的结果表明，特定规则（与一般规则相比）的较大影响是由特定规则导致的，这些特定规则阻止人们进行证明其不道德行为的道德合理化。所有研究的荟萃分析证实了这一总体模式。这项研究为有关规则，道德规范以及不道德行为引起的个人激励的影响的理论做出了贡献。