Money, a disconnecting agent: Reminders of money trigger a feeling of disconnection which increases the likelihood of unethical decisions.

Chris Macdonald

doi:10.23954/osj.v4i1.2200

Abstract

For eons many have hypothesized the corrupting influence of money, and yet, there has been a great void in the way of empirical experimentation. However, a series of pioneering experiments has begun to show confirmation of previous assumptions, one of which showed that the mere thought of money can loosen morals. This paper reveals three new experiments that explore the underlying process of this phenomenon. The results of experiments 1 and 2 suggest that individuals primed with money are less ethical than both a control group and individuals primed with business-related concepts. Further questioning revealed that an underlying mechanism behind the unethical decisions may be a decreased feeling of human connection. In accordance with this finding, the results of experiment 3 demonstrate that priming with disconnection themes directly results in a greater likelihood of unethical decisions.

Highlights

Even within the earliest examples of writing one can find vivid warnings of the corrupting influence of money
It is not the only warning of money found in the bible: “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied” (Ecclesiastes 5:10), “they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare ... which drown men in destruction” (Timothy 6:9), “there is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches” (Ecclesiastes 5:13), “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24)
In accordance with previous findings (Kouchaki et al, 2013; Gino et al, 2014), the Money Prime group indicated that they were more likely to engage in unethical activities (M = 3.55, SD = 2.27) when compared to the Control group (M = 3.26, SD = 2.24), t(94) = 1.12, p =

Summary

Introduction

Even within the earliest examples of writing one can find vivid warnings of the corrupting influence of money. Professor Maryam Kouchaki and colleagues suggest that the idea of money can increase accessibility of business-related concepts, which might explain the increase of unethical decisions (Kouchaki et al, 2013) In support of their theory, they found that those primed with the idea of money were more likely to use business-related vocabulary during a word completion task. Professor Kathleen Vohs and colleagues state that “If money conjures up a market-pricing mode, in which people think of life in transactional terms with inputs and expected outputs, one might expect problems when it comes to socially relating to others” (Vohs et al, 2008) This theory is echoed by Professor Anthony Giddens who claimed that our modern monetary system decreases important social ties (Giddens, 1990). In an attempt to understand what it might be about money priming that leads to unethical decision-making, I wanted to gather additional information that explores specific states of mind

Participants

Procedure

Results and Discussion

Concluding Remarks