Does an unfair economy lead to bad behaviour? It’s generally understood that economic inequality makes people more likely to accept and expect unethical behaviour. According to a new study by Adrian Schroeder and his co-authors, those expectations aren’t limited to predictions of other people’s behaviour. When faced with making unethical choices that might benefit them, people even predict they would behave unethically themselves.

In preparation for his master’s studies, Schroeder, now a PhD student in the Department of Economics, University of Toronto, worked with Steven Heine and Anita Schmalor on a series of experiments to examine what they call “expectations of everyday unethical behaviours.” Examples include keeping the extra when a salesclerk makes a mistake when giving change, or keeping an online purchase delivered to the wrong address. These are the “everyday transgressions that violate social norms, although they aren’t necessarily against the law,” the authors explained.

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