Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/128433 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5732
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper provides controlled experimental evidence that striving for pleasures of skill can have negative moral consequences and causally reduce moral values. Subjects perform an IQ-test. They know that each correctly solved question increases the likelihood of moral transgression. In terms of self-image, this creates a trade-off between signaling excellence and immoral disposition. We contrast performance in the IQ-test to test scores in an otherwise identical test, which is, however, framed as a simple questionnaire. We find that subjects perform significantly better in the IQ-test condition, and become less willing to reduce test scores in order to act morally.
JEL: 
C91
D02
D62
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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