Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: thedoc on 21/11/2014 09:50:39
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Banks may just make bankers dishonest, according to new research.
Read the whole story on our website by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/news/news/1000599/)
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I think you would find pretty much the same behaviour in any industry that pays bonuses for hitting targets with other people's assets. Recent revelations about police records and health service administration show what happens when management isn't actually in touch with the product, and targets are not related to actual achievement. Politics is the ultimate example of statistical cynicism: politicians claim credit when people are happy, and explain the necessity for hardship when they aren't, but they are not actually capable of controlling anything except their own salaries.
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I would think it would be an over-exaggeration to say that all "bankers" are dishonest. I have always assumed that the bank tellers that I come face to face with are generally honest in, and out of their work.
The "investment bankers" may be a different breed altogether, making cutthroat business decisions based on hunches.
I wonder if those individuals who get into the high level investment banking are of a cutthroat mindset that allows them to easier rationalize the fudging the coin toss (or other game allowing cheating for profit). So, while the work environment may foster that mentality, it may be the ones that have marginal ethics that actually get ahead in the environment.
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The interesting thing about this study is that they controlled quite carefully for the issues that Alan raises. Also, the bankers behaved themselves when they weren't thinking about work - it was only when they were primed to adopt a banking mindset that they began to cheat. Other occupations did not succumb in the same way, and that was the main thrust of the findings - it's the environment that has reset the social norms in the bankers.