Corruption experience does not make voters harsher towards the corrupt incumbents – evidence from a survey experiment in Poland

This study investigates the linkage between the experience of petty corruption and a more harsh stance on corruption scandals. A randomised vignette experiment in Poland tests how people tend to condone corruption. There are substantial mitigating effects of the arguments based on the implicit exchange and lack of credible information and no effect for the argument based on the lack of clean alternatives. Yet, people directly exposed to petty corruption were not less sensitive to any of the justifications. Thus, the linkage between the experience of corruption and more punitive attitudes towards corrupt officials may not work as expected.