How Serious Is Bribery? A Survey of Philippine Opinion

The present study addresses the question, “How serious is bribery?” In order to arrive at an answer, it was necessary to compare the seriousness of bribery to that of other selected moral acts. World Values Survey data for the Philippines were used to compare bribery to 18 other moral issues. Respondents were asked to select a number from 1 to 10, where 1 = never justifiable and 10 = always justifiable. Claiming government benefits to which you are not entitled was deemed to be the least serious moral act. Abortion was considered to be the most serious, followed by suicide, which might lead one to conclude that suicide is preferable to abortion. Bribery ranked 14th, slightly less serious than terrorism, and somewhat more serious than divorce. The present study is part of a much larger study that examines the ethics of tax evasion and bribery