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scrapedape
Aug 2, 2012, 6:04 AM
Post #1 of 3
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Registered: Jun 23, 2004
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In reply to: Half the participants were shown a picture of Barack Obama, accompanied by the following paragraph: “Sometimes, politicians engage in activities that are ethically ‘gray’ (e.g. providing favors to campaign donors, not fully disclosing information to the public, scheduling votes when politicians are away, etc.). In your mind, how acceptable is it for Obama to engage in ethically gray activities in order to get elected and carry out his agenda?” The other half of participants was shown a picture of Mitt Romney, and asked the same question about Romney’s ethical standards.
In reply to: What we found was that participants who were planning to vote Democratic indicated that Romney should be held to a fairly high ethical standard. Republican participants held a similar standard for Obama. But when participants happened to support the candidate in question – whether Obama or Romney – they indicated that ethically gray activities were approximately 3 times more acceptable.
In reply to: Politicians are in a bit of a bind. On the one hand, they are expected to uphold high ethical standards, while on the other hand, they are supposed to represent their voters. If voters hold a double standard for the ethical conduct of their own candidate and the opposing candidate, the overall standard of ethics is likely to fall to the lowest common denominator.
http://danariely.com/...standards-of-ethics/
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cracklover
Aug 2, 2012, 7:58 AM
Post #2 of 3
(258 views)
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Registered: Nov 14, 2002
Posts: 9676
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scrapedape wrote: In reply to: Half the participants were shown a picture of Barack Obama, accompanied by the following paragraph: “Sometimes, politicians engage in activities that are ethically ‘gray’ (e.g. providing favors to campaign donors, not fully disclosing information to the public, scheduling votes when politicians are away, etc.). In your mind, how acceptable is it for Obama to engage in ethically gray activities in order to get elected and carry out his agenda?” The other half of participants was shown a picture of Mitt Romney, and asked the same question about Romney’s ethical standards. In reply to: What we found was that participants who were planning to vote Democratic indicated that Romney should be held to a fairly high ethical standard. Republican participants held a similar standard for Obama. But when participants happened to support the candidate in question – whether Obama or Romney – they indicated that ethically gray activities were approximately 3 times more acceptable. In reply to: Politicians are in a bit of a bind. On the one hand, they are expected to uphold high ethical standards, while on the other hand, they are supposed to represent their voters. If voters hold a double standard for the ethical conduct of their own candidate and the opposing candidate, the overall standard of ethics is likely to fall to the lowest common denominator.
In other news... a team of British scientists has shown that water is wet.
G
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petsfed
Aug 2, 2012, 10:37 PM
Post #3 of 3
(228 views)
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Registered: Sep 24, 2002
Posts: 8571
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The other interpretation: if the other guy is cheating, I'm no worse than him if I do the same thing. Politicians have long held that the minimum (and therefore the standard) is just above the very worst of their ilk. This study shows that most voters have bought into it as well.
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