Public comments criticizing the honesty and trustworthiness of Professionals in Finance (PIFs) are commonly seen as a way to motivate them towards engaging in more socially responsible business practices. However, the link between public views of this professional group, the self-views of individual group members, and their motivation to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities has not been empirically examined. In this research, we draw on Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Behavioral Regulation Model for social evaluation (BRM) to examine how the self-views of individual group members relate to perceived characteristics of their professional group, indicating Competence and Morality. In two studies (N = 123, 191) we examined whether the self-views of high-profile and general PIFs are affected by other people's perceptions of the honesty and trustworthiness of this professional group. The results offer support for our reasoning derived from SIT and the BRM. In both studies, we first demonstrate that public concerns about the group's lack of honesty and trustworthiness impact on the moral self-views of financial professionals. Subsequently, we employ an experimental design to reveal that reinforcing moral criticism leveled at the group only reduces the motivation of individual group members to engage in CSR activities, while group-level moral affirmation enhances this motivation. The results of both studies converge to demonstrate how public critique on the moral behavior of their professional group relates to the self-views and behavioral motives of PIFs. We consider the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

中文翻译：

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道德对于集体自尊的重要性以及金融业专业人士在工作中从事社会责任行为的动机

批评金融专业人士 (PIF) 诚实守信的公众评论通常被视为激励他们参与更具社会责任感的商业实践的一种方式。然而，这个专业团体的公众观点、个人团体成员的自我观点以及他们参与企业社会责任 (CSR) 活动的动机之间的联系尚未得到实证检验。在这项研究中，我们利用社会认同理论 (SIT) 和社会评价行为调节模型 (BRM) 来检验个体群体成员的自我观点如何与其专业群体的感知特征相关，表明能力和道德。在两项研究中（N = 123, 191) 我们检查了高知名度和一般 PIF 的自我看法是否会受到其他人对该专业群体的诚实和可信度的看法的影响。结果为我们从 SIT 和 BRM 得出的推理提供了支持。在这两项研究中，我们首先证明公众对群体缺乏诚实守信的担忧会影响金融专业人士的道德自我观。随后，我们采用实验设计来揭示，加强对团体的道德批评只会降低个体团体成员参与 CSR 活动的动机，而团体层面的道德肯定会增强这种动机。两项研究的结果汇聚在一起，证明了公众对其专业群体道德行为的批评与 PIF 的自我观点和行为动机之间的关系。我们考虑了这些发现的理论和实践意义。