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Learning Economics Makes Honesty Feel Like Work
There’s an interesting group of studies that shows an Econ education makes people more selfish and less ethical. Add this one to the list. (gated paper)
“Repeated business scandals have raised concerns about the possible role that specializing in economics plays in individual morality. We explored whether and how economics specialization is positively related to unethical behavior through the lay belief that honesty is effortful. We found that people who specialized in economics were more likely to hold the belief that honesty takes effort—a finding that was consistent across three independent samples (n = 1,561) including a large, nationally representative sample.”
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