Contagious dishonesty

Imagine that you go to City Hall for a construction permit to renovate your house. The employee who receives your form says that, because of the great number of applications the office has received, the staff will take up to nine months to issue the permit. But if you give her $100, your form will make it to the top of the pile. You realize she has just asked for a bribe: an illicit payment to obtain preferential treatment. A number of questions are likely to go through your head. Will I pay to speed things up? Would any of my friends or relatives do the same? You would probably not wonder, however, whether being exposed to the request would, in and of itself, affect a subsequent ethical decision. That is the kind of question behavioral researchers ask to investigate how corruption spreads.