Incidental emotions, integral emotions, and decisions to pay taxes

In this chapter we present initial investigations of the role of emotions on tax compliance decisions. We introduce selected emotion theories and present different paths by which emotions can possibly affect tax decisions, namely indirectly via mood and emotions unrelated to the tax decision itself (or “incidental emotions”) and directly via emotions that are elicited in the taxation context itself (or “integral emotions”). We then present an experimental study investigating the influence of positive versus negative mood on tax compliance. Further, we present and analyze a study exploring emotions elicited by the taxation context. Finally, we suggest that a fruitful path for future research is the integration of emotions into the slippery slope framework of tax compliance.
Keywords: tax compliance, emotion induction, experiment, incidental emotions, integral emotions