Tag Archives: Dishonest

Britons more dishonest than a decade ago

A recent online survey of 2000 people conducted by reserachers at the university of Essex has found that Britons are more dishonest than ten years ago. The survey asked ten questions about whether they thought a range of activities were justified or not. Some of the key findings are –

  • A decade ago, 70% of people said having an affair was never justified but this dropped to just 50% in 2011.
  • The proportion who said picking up money found in the street was never justified dropped from almost 40% a decade ago to less than 20%
  • However, while 78% of people condemned benefit fraud in 2000, this had risen to 85% in 2011

The research also showed that young people are more dishonest than older people. Researchers have hypothesised that the social causes of this are lower moral standards of media role-models – some suggested examples include

  • Footballers cheating on their wives
  • City financiers selling risky mortgages and share options when they know they are no good
  • Journalists hacking into phone accounts.
  • For good measure – I could add Politicians fiddling their expenses, and of course the Harry Reknapp Story.

This is a great example of a longitudinal study – that’s also full of problems, one of the most obvious being that surely the most dishonest people just lie about being dishonest?!

The links to the actual survey aren’t working right now, but I’ll add them in laters!