Blowing the Whistle on Data Fudging: A Controlled Field Experiment1

This experiment examined determinants of “whistle blowing,” the disclosure of organizational wrongdoing. Previous research, limited largely to analyses of cross‐sectional, self‐reported data, has not established cause‐effect relations, and dispositional variables generally have not been examined. In this study, 295 students witnessed apparent wrongdoing by a research assistant and were given an opportunity to report it to a university authority. Results indicated that men were more likely than women to report the wrongdoing. Whistle blowing also was a function of lower, rather than higher, levels of moral judgment development. More whistle blowing occurred when there were more, rather than fewer, observers of wrongdoing. Implications for research and practice are descried.