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To sustainably develop organisational goals, it is important to create conditions under which leaders are trusted and judged to be incorrupt. We proposed that and tested whether leader selection affects judgements of leader corruption. A correlational study with cross‐national data and two experimental studies in China were conducted. Study 1 collected and analysed 20‐year panel data on 93 countries/territories. To provide causal evidence for the results of Study 1 and account for this effect, Studies 2 and 3 manipulated leader selection and measured trust in leaders and perceptions of leader corruption. The three studies converged to show that election (vs. appointment) predicted decreased judgements of leader corruption. Furthermore, Studies 2 and 3 identified that trust in leaders is the underlying mechanism driving this leader selection effect. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of perceptions of leader corruption, the process of leader empowerment and the control of corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]