P ROP STYLIST: SA RAH CAVE FOR EH MA NAGEM ENT
READER’S DIGEST
damaging property, playing hooky—predicted an esteemed occupation: entrepreneur. When young men, in particular, take risks that pan out, testosterone levels surge. The hormone may underlie the “winner effect,” say researchers John Coates and Joe Herbert of the University of Cambridge, who tracked the hormonal activity of stock option traders (again, all male) over their good and bad days in the market. The more wins, the higher the hormones, the greater the confidence boost, the bigger the risks, and so on. But at a certain point, risk taking can become irrational, reckless, or ruthless. This can cause “ethical numbing.” Consider Steve Jobs: As Apple grew, so did lawsuits against it, like those over patents. Being wealthy takes a moral toll on both genders. Studies have found that the $150,000-plus-per-annum set was four times as likely to cheat as those making less than $15,000 a year when playing a game to win $50. The rich didn’t stop for pedestrians at a crosswalk nearly as often as less-wealthy
drivers. This held true even when people were role-playing—that is, they weren’t rich in real life. That’s because environment—not any intrinsic personality trait—abets rule breaking, argues Andy Yap, a behavioral scientist. Yap and his colleagues asked volunteers to sit in an SUV-size driver’s seat versus a cramped one or an executive-size office space versus a cubicle and then tested their responses to various moral scenarios. In roomier settings, people reported feeling more powerful and were likelier to steal money, cheat on a test, and commit traffic violations in a driving simulation.
The Bonding Defense We aren’t born with an enlightened, universal sense of fairness for all, Harvard University psychologist Joshua Greene argues in his book Moral Tribes. We evolved as tribal animals who followed the rules within small groups (Us) but not with the rest of the world (Them). rd.com
|
05•2015
|
35