Corruption aggravates societal inequality and challenges organizations and governments. Although numerous studies confirm that economic growth inhibits corruption, corruption in China rises rather than falls with economic growth. No study found to date has focused on the psychological mechanisms underlying economic influence on corruption. Based on the stimuli-organism-response (SOR) framework and moral foundations theory (MTF), we collected social media big data from 30 provinces in mainland China (involving 1.16 million active users) from 2011 to 2016 to investigate the relationship between economic growth, moral foundations and the incidence of corruption. The results show that: (1) economic growth positively predicts corruption in China; (2) binding foundations rather than individualizing foundations can predict corruption; (3) Loyalty and Authority positively mediate the prediction of economic growth for corruption and (4) Sanctity negatively mediates the prediction of economic growth for corruption. The results confirm the mediating role of moral foundations between economic growth and corruption while providing insights to prevent corruption from a psychological perspective.