17. Shaul Shalvi on behavioral ethics and the psychological roots of corruption

The interview kicks off with Shaul outlining how the EU Anti-corruption report served as a motivation Shaul to do corruption research and why psychologists have only more recently started to get interested in corruption. To give listeners an idea how behavioral scientists seek to understand corruption and unethical behavior more broadly, Shaul and Nils discuss behavioral ethics, an interdisciplinary approach to study when and how people break ethical rules from a descriptive perspective: Hence, instead of telling people what they should behavioral ethics observe what they actually do. Shaul describes his personal inspiration to join the field (e.g. other researchers like Max Bazerman, https://tinyurl.com/y5oyqa3g ) and the methods he helped to develop (see for more info here: https://tinyurl.com/y49crb3j). The two also discuss when children develop the ability to cheat studied by researchers such as Marile Claire Vileval, https://tinyurl.com/y6pwzbh8). For all of those who want to get an overview of some of the insights gained we recommend this great website www.preferencesfortruthtelling.com. In the second part, Shaul and Nils discuss the shift from an individual perspective – studying people who make ethical decisions by themselves – to a more social perspective where people make ethical decisions together. They cover, how others can influence people’s own willingness to break ethical rules by being bad role models – as corruption corrupts (https://tinyurl.com/yy9blgwr, see also https://tinyurl.com/y49guetf). Others can also play a role as a victim. Shaul mentions a recent meta-analysis that showed how people are more readily willing to cheat when the victim is abstract (e.g. the society) compared to when it is concrete (e.g. another person; https://tinyurl.com/y2df4lxu). Shaul describes his work on the collaborative roots of corruption and whether people’s inclination to cooperate or to be honest prevails (https://tinyurl.com/y2df4lxu) and how people might at times engage in “ethical free-riding” (https://tinyurl.com/y367254q). Pick of the podcast: Economic Gangsters by Ray Fisman and Edward Miguel (https://tinyurl.com/y4e7x3xp)