Hormones: They May Influence Unethical Behavior

New findings published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General reveal that some hormones raging throughout our bodies may be responsible for unethical behavior.

Researchers at Harvard University and the University of Texas at Austin discovered that hormones, in fact, play a two-part role when it comes to encouraging various unethical patterns, including cheating.

For instance, researchers found that the endocrine system plays a dual role in unethical acts by first elevating hormone levels that predict the likelihood of cheating and then changing the hormone levels during the act that reinforces such behaviors, according to a news release. 

The study involved data from over 100 participants who were asked to complete a math test, grade it themselves and self-report the number of correctly completed problems. The more problems they got correct, the more money they would then earn.

Researchers found that elevated levels of testosterone and cortisol from salivary samples that were collected before and after they were tested were likely to overstate the number of correctly solved problems.

Furthermore, participants who cheated showed lowered levels of cortisol and reported reductions in emotional distress after the test, as if cheating provided some sort of stress relief.

"The stress reduction is accompanied by a powerful stimulation of the reward centers in the brain, so these physiological psychological changes have the unfortunate consequence of reinforcing the unethical behavior," Robert Josephs, corresponding author of the study said.

Researchers noted that as neither hormone without the other predicted unethical behavior, lower levels of either could potentially help prevent unethical episodes.

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