Signs of Crumbling Morality or Bad Survey Technique...You Decide

While reading the LA Times this morning, I came across an interesting article on the Josephson Institute which is an organization committed to ethics. Strange, indeed. I have yet to see the survey or its methodology, but the results are startling. 7,000 people from various age groups were questioned about their morality and asserted that "today's youth [are] cynics who are aware that their behavior crosses boundaries but believe it is necessary to succeed." Now, before I go on and before I give you my opinion, keep these basic principles in mind. First, adults and older people in general tend to forget the past even when it is written down. Second, older people always (and I can get you quotes from Roman or Greek times, ancient China or Mesopotamia) lament a long lost golden age. And third, people generally lie on surveys, either consciously or unconsciously (the reasons why will be discussed below).

Assuming the survey is accurate here are some findings. (1) Teens (17 and younger) are five times as likely than those older than 50 to lie and cheat when they believe it is necessary to success (51% v. 10%). The younger group is also four times as likely to lie to their boss and three times as likely to keep change mistakenly given to them. (2) Young adults (18-24) were more likely to lie to a spouse than 41-50 year olds (48% v. 22%), make an unauthorized copy of music/video (69% v. 27%), and misrepresent themselves or omit a fact in a job interview (14% v. 4%). The conclusions some are drawing is that unethical behavior is molded early, which is probably true to a certain extent. The survey itself offers no theoretical discussion or interpretation of the data aside from the conclusion I just noted.

First, let's look at the data (and I am sure there is more, but the report has yet to be released). Taking the 18-24 versus 41-50 year-old groups first, it is possible to dismiss this data for a number of reasons. What does "lying" entail? Are we talking about concealing another lover, or just telling your wife you are working when you are hanging out watching TV? This word is loaded and unclear. And, my best guess as a sociologist, what it means to a person in their early twenties and someone who has been married for 10+ years is very, very different. A person tells their significant other so many small, white lies that by the time you are older, a lie comes to mean something much more grave. "What does my butt look like in these jeans?"; "Do I look fat?" Or, how about trying to plan a surprise party and telling your significant other a bunch of lies to keep them off the trail? Clearly, lying is subjective and changes over time. I would imagine 41-50 year-old people feel a lie is something that will damage the relationship, whereas younger people probably consider any non-truth regardless of impact a lie. The disparity of unauthorized music is nonsense. Any person with a VCR in the 1980's made tapes of TV and movies; cassette tapes also allowed people to transfer vinyl, make mix tapes, and dub friends music. There are few if any people who have not done this; or make a CD for their car. Again, the words are the key to this question, as is the level of awareness. In the 1980's it was nothing to make tapes and in the 1990's it was nothing to make a CD, -- but, we all know the FBI warning on movies and on the backs of CDs and records, yet ignore it because it is for personal use. The internet has changed this in many ways. No one has to buy the CD or movie you plan on making a copy of for personal use. But, more importantly, the number of high profile trials of companies like Napster have made this issue much more salient for teens and young adults. Older people still think don't consider what they did to be illegal, despite the contrary. And, all I have to say about the misrepresenting yourself in a job interview is thank god the numbers are so low. That may be the truest statistic; the discrepancy, without looking at the data, is probably not statistically significant which means you cannot really interpret the actual difference between groups.

Now, for the 17 and younger group v. the 50 and older group. Re-read the principles I stated above. The third one especially is important. We know that people lie on surveys. Sometimes people overestimate or underestimate their behavior (you know you do too, so don't try and hide it). We also know people are rational and when taking a survey will often tell the surveyor what they think he/she wants to hear. We also know that norms are very well socialized in a lot of people, and they will often answer in normative fashion rather than as accurate reflections of their behavior. And, of course, depending on the administration of the survey, we know people outright lie sometimes. Either way, respondents are not likely to give good answers to questions like: would you cheat or lie if necessary. For younger people, they are likely to either tell the truth because they care less and don't feel social pressures the same way, or overestimate it because they have not been in enough situations to discover whether they would or would not do the things they think they will. In fact, their answers may be more a reflection of what they think older people, or the average person would do. This is bad. Most kids see their parents cheat on their taxes, try to get out of speeding tickets, take short cuts, and do other things. They learn from them. If only only 10% of adults lie and cheat, then where do the 51% of the teens learn these behaviors? Blaming friends and the media may account for some of the discrepancy, but surely not all of it. Of course, I feel it is probably a reflection of their understanding of the world.

Conversely, older people lie all the time. The results prove this. It is unlikely that only 10% of the American population cheats on their taxes. Again, the words hold different meaning to different age groups based on life experience or lack thereof. I find it hard to believe that these people do not lie to their boss on a daily or weekly basis. What constitutes a lie, its severity, and its consequences again are very different given peoples' age and experience.

More generally, what does this survey tell us? Well, it tells us that Americans are like most other homo sapien sapien, primates, and other animals in that they will generally do what they need to succeed. It also tells us that society does a pretty good job of socializing at least 49% of its members (and, likely higher) to act ethically and morally. That is a reasonable number. In fact, I would assume based on the age-based biases I noted earlier, the number is likely higher -- somewhere between the two age groups' responses. As a professor, I see a cross-section of students who cheat and lie all the time. They do this because they learned it early on: to survive in the current educational system rife with test after test, and an ultra-competitive job market hit hard by globalization and a recession, one must do what they must. Kenneth Lay and Enron don't help; nor do athletes and owners fighting over millions of dollars; nor do reality TV stars hitting it big for having no talent; nor rappers singing about their money, their fame, and their narcissism. And most importantly, the fact that every adult lies to their kids about Santa Claus, where babies come from, about fights and divorces, about everything that is not "kid-oriented" does not help. People lie. They cheat. And, their children witness these things...go figure.