This study examines how citizens’ corruption intentions are affected by their perception of corrupt practices. Two types of corruption perception and their associated moral costs are addressed; perception of seriousness and prevalence of corruption. Using game theory, we found that these perceptions can explain the extent of moral costs and the evolutionary stability of corruption in a society.
We surveyed 267 participants of the ‘Korea Public Procurement Expo 2012’ and measured their experiences of corruption, perceived seriousness and prevalence of corruption, expected return of corruption, and the perception of corrupt practices. The multiple regression analysis results suggest that citizens who believe that corruption is serious show less intention to act in a corrupt way. On the contrary, the perception of prevalence of corruption has a positive relationship with corrupt intentions. This implies that anti-corruption policy should take into account citizen’s socially constructed perceptions of corruption, and also be able to raise awareness of the seriousness of corrupt practices even if they are prevalent in society.