Berlin, May 11 (ANI): According to research from a German university, markets are responsible for reducing moral values of people.
Economists from the Universities of Bonn and Bamberg have found out that even though people express objections against child labor, exploitation of the workforce or cruelty against animals, they ignore their own moral standards when acting as market participants, searching for the cheapest goods, which is how their moral concerns are reduced.
In comparison to non-market decisions, moral standards are significantly lower if people participate in markets as then people ignore their individual moral standards.
According to one of the researchers Prof. Dr. Armin Falk, it is important to understand what role markets and other institutions play in moral decision making, adding that this is a question economists have to deal with.
Falk said that to study immoral outcomes, they studied whether people are willing to harm a third party in exchange to receiving money, adding that harming others in an intentional and unjustified way is typically considered unethical.
A subgroup of subjects decided between life and money in a non-market decision context (individual condition), which allows for eliciting moral standards held by individuals.
Prof. Dr. Nora Szech, another researcher, said that in markets, people face several mechanisms that may lower their feelings of guilt and responsibility, adding that in such situations, people focus on competition and profits rather than on moral concerns.
In addition, in markets with many buyers and sellers, subjects may justify their behavior by stressing that their impact on outcomes is negligible. (ANI)
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