Gallup polls report that as of September 2026, perceptions of government corruption in the United States are at their highest level in 20 years, with 89 percent of U.S. adults saying it is widespread. That figure is up from 79 percent in 2025. These high numbers indicate that despite polarization on many issues, concern about corruption exists across political parties.
Gallup questions 132 countries about corruption annually, grouping the United States with the 38 member countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). In the past 20 years, perceptions of corruption in the United States have risen from 72 percent to 89 percent, while the median level of perceived corruption among OECD countries has fallen from 69 percent to below 60 percent by 2025.
This puts the United States at the highest perceived corruption in OECD rankings for the first time. Since 2023, only four countries out of the 132 in which Gallup annually poses this question have scored 89-92 percent: Lebanon, Ghana, and Nigeria in 2024, and Peru in 2025.
From Earliest to Latest
In a May 2026 publication, The Political Economy of Legal and Governance Reform in Central Asia, psychologists Yurtbakan and Aktas from Medipol University in Istanbul, Turkey examine corruption from a socio-psychological perspective. They consider the role of leadership and social norms, and their study is both descriptive (what people do) and injunctive (what people approve or disapprove).
Their research in Asia and former Soviet bloc countries mirrors psychological findings on corrupt behavior worldwide. They explain that when unethical behavior becomes widespread and develops into a behavioral norm:
It may become highly resistant to change;
Individuals are more likely to behave corruptly when they perceive corruption is increasing;
Where corruption is tolerated, employees are more likely to engage in corporate misconduct, accounting fraud, and insider trading; and
The likelihood of corruption is amplified within hierarchical structures.
The authors recount that the written history of corruption dates back to 3100 BC in ancient Egyptian civilization, illustrating its persistence as a long-standing issue that transcends time, geography, and culture.
Contemporary research consistently documents the detrimental effects of corruption on political stability, social trust, and economies. Boly and Gillanders (2022) find that it undermines trust in, and the legitimacy of, state institutions, thereby weakening the effectiveness of anti-corruption laws and creating a vicious cycle of non-compliance.
What Can We Do About It?
The researchers quote Toleikiene, who explains that successful corruption reduction requires recognition and intolerance of corruption, backed by preventive actions.
Their research concurs with other 2026 research by Erlich and Gans-Morese, which found that good behavior and perceptions of corruption strongly influence the likelihood of corrupt behavior.
What people do, however, can also change behavior by reducing the likelihood of corrupt behavior. Importantly, descriptive norms do not exclusively promote corruption; perceptions in the opposite direction can also reduce the likelihood of corrupt behavior. A study conducted in South Africa by Köbis et al. (2022) found that poster messages emphasizing a decline in societal bribery were associated with lower levels of bribery-related behavior.
In Mexico, Agerberg showed that correcting misperceptions of injunctive anti-corruption norms—by informing respondents that most citizens condemn bribery—strengthened perceived anti-corruption norms, increased interpersonal trust, reduced beliefs that corruption is culturally entrenched, and decreased willingness to pay bribes.
Leadership
The researchers find that the most effective anti-corruption programs are founded in leadership. Overall, leaders play a decisive role in determining whether followers rationalize or normalize corruption (Entwistle and Doering, 2024). Leaders who explicitly condemn corruption and encourage followers to internalize ethical standards reduce followers’ engagement in corrupt acts.
Leadership Essential Reads
They explain that descriptive and injunctive norms guide behavior by signaling what is typical and acceptable within an organization. Norms influence individuals’ decisions to engage in, or resist, unethical actions, and their effects may be moderated or amplified by the type and quality of leadership. For example, ethical leaders may strengthen the influence of prosocial norms, whereas unethical leadership may undermine normative guidance and allow corrupt behaviors to proliferate.
Style Matters
The authors find that transformational leadership styles are the most effective anti-corruption measure because they:
serve as a role model,
inspire motivation,
encourage intellectual and creative engagement,
and provide individualized support to followers.
The authors find that policies that strengthen transparency, protect against retaliation, and align institutional incentives with professional values are essential for internal integrity to translate into visible ethical action. This matters because current research shows that visible ethical action leads to greater ethical behavior. Messaging about social approval and rejection supports recognition and provides relatively strong, enduring prevention. Where ethical action is structurally supported, focus on reducing the personal costs of ethical behavior and reinforcing personal integrity as a collective, institutionally supported resource.
Legislative Acts
The study ends with a bonus suggestion from Aiolfi (2025): governments should identify and neutralize corruption risks at the lawmaking stage by scrutinizing draft laws and regulations for vague formulations, excessive discretion, and procedural gaps. Such examination seeks to prevent the emergence of corruption-prone norms, reduce administrative barriers, and safeguard the public interest before laws are passed.