Stress leads to unethical conduct

Fatigue and stress influence ethical choice in a negative way. When their self-control is exhausted, people sooner fall for the temptations of unethical actions, says researcher Nicole Mead at the department of Marketing.

In her paper ‘Unable to resist temptation’ she studied the conditions under which subjects spontaneously start cheating.

There were four experiments – in which Mead worked together with American fellow researchers Francesca Gino, Maurice E. Schweitzer and Dan Ariely. Students did, among other things, a series of calculations. Good outcomes, which they themselves had to report, were financially rewarded. Prior to the calculations, a part of the subjects was worn out with other tests. Apparently, tired participants were significantly more likely to lie about the results.

The effect of that context is not the same for everyone. For people who value their moral identity self control is not a cognitive process. Such a person will not cheat, not even when he is mentally tired, Mead says.

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