Betraying your “moral code” is easier than you think, according to two German economists. Economists Armin Falk and Nora Szech have released a study and found that,

markets erode people’s morality and help them make decisions that look outright awful without the thin veil of commerce. In short, capitalism makes us do some not-so-nice things.

The key question of the study was, “would you let a mouse be killed in exchange for 10 euros?” The first group of a few hundred respondents saw 46% of them willing to let a mouse die. The repondents were then placed in a market environment where they were able to trade the lives of the mice. In this environment a staggering 72% of respondents were willing to trade mouse lives, the scary part was that they were willing to sell the mice for far less than the 10 euros. And the more complicated the level of trading got the more willing respondents were to trading the lives of mice for an even lower price. Falk said:

This logic is a general characteristic of markets. If I don’t buy or sell now, someone else will.

Michael J Sandel, Harvard political philosopher used an example of a woman having a company website tattoed on her forehead for $10 000, she later used that money to pay for her son’s school fees. Snadel was of the opinion that when you are able to buy and sell anything, the value of the things that you’re buying or selling loses value.

The economists wrote.

We as a society have to think about where markets are appropriate and where they are not.

[Source: MSN]