Would you kill a mouse for money? Many people would. But as it turns out, the likelihood that people would do so increases sharply when they confront that choice in the context of a marketplace. “Markets erode moral behavior,” says Nora Szech, an economist at the University of Bamberg.
In an experiment conducted by Szech and her co-author, Armin Falk, student participants first viewed a photo of a mouse. Then they watched a video of a mouse dying in a gas chamber. Next they were asked if they would take 10 euros in exchange for allowing a similar mouse to die. If they said yes, the mouse was gassed. If they said no, it would live out the rest of its natural life in the company of a few other mice in an enriched environment. (In fact, the mice in question were surplus lab animals, and they were slated to be killed. The mice that participants chose to save escaped that fate.)
About 46 percent of participants said yes. That figure offers a baseline indicator of the students’ ethical attitudes. The researchers then compared that baseline response to participants’ behavior in a market context. Students bargained over the price of a mouse’s life either with one other person or with several buyers and sellers in “a simple version of a stock market,” says Szech. If they agreed on a price and made a trade, the mouse was killed. If they couldn’t agree on a price or refused to make a trade, the mouse survived.
Under market conditions, between 72 percent and 76 percent of participants were willing to kill the mouse for 10 euros or less—a lot less, in many cases. In the multilateral market, the life of a mouse went for an average of only 5.1 euros. “The markets seduce us to make decisions that are not in line with the moral standards we have as individuals,” Szech explains.
It’s a finding that echoes what other researchers have discovered. “In a market-like environment, where you can buy and sell things and everything has a price, you’re kind of in a morality-free zone,” says Samuel Bowles, research professor and director of the Behavioral Sciences Program at the Santa Fe Institute.
How, exactly, does market activity lead to morally questionable behavior? The researchers cite several possible explanations. Spreading the responsibility for a decision between a buyer and a seller may lessen the sense of guilt that each of them feels. Another explanation is that a market-driven focus on prices and profits leads people to neglect the moral implications of a transaction. In any case, the effect is pervasive, according to Szech: Consumers tend to shop for products with the lowest price, not for those with the lowest social cost.
Throughout history, disagreements over what is marketable have resulted in social upheaval, Szech notes. The practice of buying and selling human beings became an issue that helped cause the US Civil War—to name one prominent example. “Our study shows that it’s right to question where markets belong and where not, and to have a social debate about that,” she says.
Armin Falk and Nora Szech, “Morals and Markets,” Science, 340, 2013.
Read more stories by Jessica Ruvinsky.