Goffman’s Return to Las Vegas: Studying Corruption as Social Interaction

In this paper, we argue that corruption research can benefit from studying corrupt transactions as a particular form of social interaction. We showcase the fruitfulness of a social interaction lens by investigating user reports on the online website Frontdesktip.com, where users share experiences and tips on the best ways of bribing hotel clerks in Las Vegas in exchange for free room upgrades and complimentary extras. We employ a logistic regression analysis to
examine what factors influence the “successful” performance of this bribery practice. Our study makes a twofold contribution to existing research on corruption. First, on the theoretical level, we show that the typified and scripted character of social interactions can help explain corrupt transactions. Second, on the methodological level, our study demonstrates the usefulness of online self-reports as a non-reactive data source to observe corrupt transactions.