WASHINGTON: Love watching movies with violent content? You may be more likely to lie, cheat or steal, according to a new study which found that exposure to violence could make people less ethical.
The study found that exposure to human violence is strongly linked to an increase in cheating for monetary gain.
“Research shows that violent media increases aggressive behaviour towards others, but what we’re showing here is that it goes beyond that,” said study coauthor Josh Gubler, a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in US.
Gubler and coauthor David Wood, a professor at the Marriott School of Management at BYU, carried out three experiments with roughly 1,000 participants for the study.
In the first experiment, participants were paid to review sentences and edit those with mistakes. Half of the participants were given sentences with violent language.
Subjects were told they would be paid whether or not they were correct, providing an incentive to mark all sentences “correct” to earn money quicker.
Those who reviewed violent sentences were 24 per cent more likely to cheat.
Follow our WhatsApp channel