The Decision to Blow the Whistle: A Social Information Processing Framework

Abstract

In this article we integrate the power, justice, and prosocial literature on whistle-blowing with the attribution and emotion literature to develop a social information processing model. This model illustrates how individuals' attributions and responsibility judgments for wrongdoing, as well as their cost-benefit analyses of acting, influence their emotions and decisions to blow the whistle. In addition, we demonstrate how wrongdoers can use impression management tactics to manipulate whistle-blowing decisions.