Contextual effects on ethical sensitivity and penalty judgments

The aim of the current study is to explore thepotential existence of contextual effects onethical sensitivity and penalty judgments. Inso doing, Turkish female and male businessstudents' ethical judgments for accounting andgeneral business contexts are investigated,along with their penalty judgments in these twosettings. The results of this study reveal nosignificant gender-related differences inethical judgments on accounting issues, butsignificant gender differences are observed ingeneral business scenarios. This findingsupports the proposition that observeddifferences of ethical judgments between thegenders may be contextual. The resultsindicate that there is higher ethical awarenessfor both genders in general business contexts,with females showing stronger ethicalsensitivity than males for general businessvignettes. In general, males are found toprefer harsher penalties than females foraccounting settings and for all penaltychoices. Analyses of penalty judgments betweenthe groups of individuals who are moreethically sensitive and who are less ethicallysensitive reveals that there exist significantdifferences between these groups in all penaltychoices, with ethically-more-sensitive groupparticipants preferring stronger penalties.