AUTHOR=Feng Baoyi , Chen Zhijun 
  
TITLE=The paradox of moral salience: when ethical leadership amplifies the impact of coworker incivility on workplace cheating behavior
  
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology
  
VOLUME=Volume 17 - 2026
  
YEAR=2026
  
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1845596
  
DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1845596
  
ISSN=1664-1078
  
ABSTRACT=PurposeDrawing upon moral disengagement theory, this study investigates the cognitive mechanisms and boundary conditions underlying how and when ambient coworker incivility spills over into workplace cheating behavior (WCB). Specifically, we offer a nuanced perspective on ethical leadership by examining its unintended amplifying effect in uncivil work environments.MethodsUtilizing a three-wave, time-lagged field survey with one-month intervals, we collected data from 252 full-time employees. We estimated a moderated mediation model using path analysis and bias-corrected bootstrapping to examine how ethical leadership conditionally shapes the indirect effect of coworker incivility on WCB via moral disengagement.ResultsResults reveal that employee moral disengagement serves as a cognitive mechanism mediating the positive relationship between coworker incivility and subsequent cheating behavior. High ethical leadership amplifies the positive relationship between coworker incivility and moral disengagement. Consequently, the positive indirect effect of coworker incivility on WCB via moral disengagement is significantly stronger when ethical leadership is high rather than low.ConclusionThis study provides evidence that coworker incivility translates into workplace cheating by deactivating employees’ ethical self-regulation. Importantly, it highlights an unintended consequence of ethical leadership: when leaders espouse stringent moral standards but peer incivility remains unchecked, the stark contrast between normative expectations and interpersonal reality equips employees with potent cognitive justifications to morally disengage, thereby exacerbating ethical erosion.