Stress and unethical consumer attitudes: the mediating role of construal level and materialism

Understanding why individuals behave unethically is an important topic for both theory and practice, especially nowadays when people experience many stressful events. The current research aims at examining the relationship between peoples' experienced stress and their attitude towards unethical consumption behavior, and the underlying mechanism. Empirical findings from a survey of 451 participants suggest that individuals' chronic perceived stress serves positively relate to the tolerance of unethical activities, and that this relationship is mediated by construal level and materialism value. Specifically, stressed individuals tend to develop low-level construal and high materialism values, both of which further increase their tolerance of ethically questionable behaviors.