Are we more or less honest than a hundred years ago?
March 11, 2015 11:49 PM Subscribe
Are the citizens of the U.S. more or less honest than a hundred years ago? Is there any longitudinal research that explores this question?
I'm always hearing people decry the corruption and dishonesty of people in general, but from what I can tell, we have always been ripping each other off. Is there any solid research, like a workplace integrity test or something, that has been consistently administered over the last 50-100 years that could answer this question meaningfully?
I'm always hearing people decry the corruption and dishonesty of people in general, but from what I can tell, we have always been ripping each other off. Is there any solid research, like a workplace integrity test or something, that has been consistently administered over the last 50-100 years that could answer this question meaningfully?
In a society where honesty is the default (and Human Resource departments are minimal), workplace integrity tests would be considered bizarre and insulting. Which raises the question, when were they first introduced? Apparently in 1947 and by the same guy who gave us the lie detector. (NB, a post-war phenom; the war got the American population to all sorts of strange and intrusive tests and forms.)
Judging from crime statistics over time, my guess is that these things are cyclical. Certainly when I was growing up suburban in the sixties, doors were never locked and crime was not an issue. Recent experiments to that end in Brooklyn have not been good. (Interesting that the link's reaction is contempt for the victim. And here my wife had been saying that New York City has become more civil in recent years. Well, most people aren't journalists.)
posted by BWA at 7:12 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Judging from crime statistics over time, my guess is that these things are cyclical. Certainly when I was growing up suburban in the sixties, doors were never locked and crime was not an issue. Recent experiments to that end in Brooklyn have not been good. (Interesting that the link's reaction is contempt for the victim. And here my wife had been saying that New York City has become more civil in recent years. Well, most people aren't journalists.)
posted by BWA at 7:12 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Dan Ariely's most recent book, The Homest Truth About Dishonesty, might be useful.
posted by judith at 4:58 PM on March 12, 2015
posted by judith at 4:58 PM on March 12, 2015
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posted by a lungful of dragon at 1:04 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]