The effect of specific and general rules on ethical decisions

• Rules can be either framed in specific or in general wordings.
• Effects of specific and generally framed rules on ethical decisions were tested.
• Specific rules increased ethical decisions more strongly than general rules did.
• General rules had a spill-over effect to multiple behaviors.
• Adding a specific rule to a general rule suppressed the effect of a general rule.

We examined the effects of specific and general rules on ethical decisions and demonstrated, across five studies, that specifically-framed rules elicited ethical decisions more strongly than generally-framed rules. The effectiveness of specific rules was explained by reductions in people’s moral rationalizations. Alternative explanations that people feared being caught and punished or that people perceive no clear connection between general rules and the ethical decision, were ruled out. General rules exerted some effect on ethical decisions. In fact, whereas specific rules failed to affect ethical decisions that did not explicitly correspond with the rule, the effect of the general rule depended less on the type of behavior a person encountered. Our findings further suggest that combining a specific with a general rule provided no additive advantage, as people may interpret the general rule in light of the specific rule. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.