PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Money may corrupt, but thinking about time can strengthen morality

2013-12-10
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Anna Mikulak
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science
Money may corrupt, but thinking about time can strengthen morality Priming people to think about money makes them more likely to cheat, but priming them to think about time seems to strengthen their moral compass, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research, conducted by psychological scientists Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School and Cassie Mogilner of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, shows that implicitly activating the concept of time reduces cheating behavior by encouraging people to engage in self-reflection.

High-profile cases of fraud, scams, and other unethical behavior provide regular fodder for the 24-hour news cycle. But most unethical behavior is much more mundane:

"Less attention is given to the more prevalent 'ordinary' unethical behavior carried out by people who value and care about morality but behave unethically when faced with an opportunity to cheat," says Gino.

Gino and Mogilner wondered whether boosting self-reflection might be one way to encourage people to follow their moral compass.

Across four experiments, the researchers had participants complete various tasks — including word scrambles, searches for song lyrics, and counting tasks — designed to implicitly activate the concept of money, time, or something neutral.

Participants then worked on supposedly unrelated puzzles, reporting how many puzzles they had solved at the end. The researchers incentivized performance, providing additional money for each puzzle the participants solved. Participants could easily cheat by overstating their performance because the puzzle worksheets seemed to be anonymous, and they were recycled at the end of the task.

What the participants didn't know was that each worksheet had a unique number on it, allowing the researchers to compare how many puzzles the participants actually solved to how many they said they solved.

The results were clear: Disposing people to think about money seemed to make them cheat.

In the first experiment, 87.5% of the participants primed to think of money cheated on the puzzles, compared to only 66.7% of those participants primed with neutral words. They also cheated to a greater extent, artificially boosting their scores by a greater margin than the other participants.

Thinking about time, on the other hand, seemed to prevent people from cheating: Only 42.4% of the participants primed with the concept of time overstated their performance on the task.

Data from subsequent experiments showed that the link between money and cheating, and between time and cheating, could be explained by self-reflection (or lack thereof).

Priming the concept of time seems to lead people "to notice that how they spend their time sums up to their life as a whole, encouraging them to act in ways they can be proud of when holding up this mirror to who they are," the researchers write.

While time may be an important tool in keeping us on the straight and narrow, preliminary data collected by Gino and Mogilner suggest that people tend to pay more attention to money.

"These new findings show the benefits of doing just the opposite: thinking about time rather than money," says Gino. "Our results suggest that finding ways to nudge people to reflect on the self at the time of temptation, rather than on the potential rewards they can accrue by cheating, may be an effective way to curb dishonesty."

###

For more information about this study, please contact: Francesca Gino at fgino@hbs.edu.

The article abstract can be found online: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/06/0956797613506438.abstract

This research was supported by the Harvard Business School and Wharton's Dean's Research Fund.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Time, Money, and Morality" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New study clarifies concerns regarding commonly used anti-nausea drug ondansetron

2013-12-09
New study clarifies concerns regarding commonly used anti-nausea drug ondansetron For the past two years, warnings regarding the possible link between a commonly used anti-nausea and vomiting drug ondansetron and heart arrhythmias have been a source of uncertainty in emergency ...

From common colds to deadly lung diseases, 1 protein plays key role

2013-12-09
From common colds to deadly lung diseases, 1 protein plays key role An international team of researchers has zeroed in on a protein that plays a key role in many lung-related ailments, from seasonal coughing and hacking to more serious diseases such as MRSA infections ...

Aging and gene expression -- possible links to autism and schizophrenia in offspring

2013-12-09
Aging and gene expression -- possible links to autism and schizophrenia in offspring Advanced paternal age has been associated with greater risk for psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism. With an increase in paternal age, there is a greater frequency ...

Optimal parameter of Neiguan acupuncture for cerebral infarction

2013-12-09
Optimal parameter of Neiguan acupuncture for cerebral infarction The individual difference and non-repeatability in acupuncture have not only restricted the development of acupuncture, but have also affected the specificity of acupoints. As reported in a recent ...

rTMS for hallucination in schizophrenia spectrum disorders

2013-12-09
rTMS for hallucination in schizophrenia spectrum disorders Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation uses a non-invasive and relatively painless tool to stimulate the human brain in vivo using very strong, pulsed magnetic fields. It is also used to explore and ...

Does zinc supplementation reduce aluminum-induced neurotoxicity?

2013-12-09
Does zinc supplementation reduce aluminum-induced neurotoxicity? Studies have shown that aluminum neurotoxicity can likely affect learning and memory function, and a diet containing 100–200 mg/kg zinc is adequate for maintaining learning and memory function in ...

Prion protein can trigger spongiform encephalopathy and neurodegeneration

2013-12-09
Prion protein can trigger spongiform encephalopathy and neurodegeneration Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or prion disease is triggered by the conversion from cellular prion protein to pathogenic prion protein. Notably, C-transmembrane form of prion protein ...

Cockroach never seen before in US is identified in New York

2013-12-09
Cockroach never seen before in US is identified in New York Analysis by Rutgers researchers confirms an Asian species that can survive in cold and snow NEWARK, N.J. -- With winter's arrival comes the kind of news that may give New Yorkers the creeps. A species ...

JCI early table of contents for Dec. 9, 2013

2013-12-09
JCI early table of contents for Dec. 9, 2013 Breast cancer prognosis associated with oncometabolite accumulation The metabolic profile of cancer cells can be used to develop therapies and identify biomarkers associated with cancer outcome. In this issue ...

Breast cancer prognosis associated with oncometabolite accumulation

2013-12-09
Breast cancer prognosis associated with oncometabolite accumulation The metabolic profile of cancer cells can be used to develop therapies and identify biomarkers associated with cancer outcome. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation Stefan ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Novel treatment combination improves progression-free survival in metastatic, estrogen-receptor-positive HER-2-negative breast cancer

ESMO 2025: Trial results show belzutifan shrinks rare neuroendocrine tumors and improves symptoms in patients

ESMO 2025: Dual targeted therapy shows promise in previously treated advanced kidney cancer patients

New generation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) shows unprecedented promise in early-stage disease

Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for October 2025

Three science and technology leaders elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Jump Trading CSO Kevin Bowers elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Former Inscripta CEO Sri Kosaraju elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Citadel’s Jordan Chetty elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

McGill research flags Montreal snow dump, inactive landfills as major methane polluters

A lightweight and rapid bidirectional search algorithm

Eighty-five years of big tree history available in one place for the first time

MIT invents human brain model with six major cell types to enable personalized disease research, drug discovery

Health and economic air quality co-benefits of stringent climate policies

How immune cells deliver their deadly cargo

How the brain becomes a better listener: How focus enhances sound processing

Processed fats found in margarines unlikely to affect heart health

Scientists discover how leukemia cells evade treatment

Sandra Shi MD, MPH, named 2025 STAT Wunderkind

Treating liver disease with microscopic nanoparticles

Chemicals might be hitching a ride on nanoplastics to enter your skin

Pregnant patients with preexisting high cholesterol may have elevated CV risk

UC stroke experts discuss current and future use of AI tools in research and treatment

The Southern Ocean’s low-salinity water locked away CO2 for decades, but...

OHSU researchers develop functional eggs from human skin cells

Most users cannot identify AI bias, even in training data

Hurricane outages: Analysis details the where, and who, of increased future power cuts

Craters on surface of melanoma cells found to serve as sites for tumor killing

Research Spotlight: Mapping overlooked challenges in stroke recovery

Geographic and temporal patterns of screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer in the US

[Press-News.org] Money may corrupt, but thinking about time can strengthen morality