Would you inflict pain for information, accept a government bailout for your inappropriate actions, or take financial advantage of another’s ignorance?
Of course you wouldn’t. But lots of other people would, right? It’s a good thing the rest of the world can navigate by your moral compass.
Facebook Sexuality Prediction
Beware: The online information you’d prefer remained hidden isn’t limited to spring break pictures and late-night blog comments. Students at MIT developed software that makes predictions based on Facebook profile data and friend lists. For example, even in men who preferred to keep their sexual orientation private, this software predicts with spooky accuracy who is likely to be gay. Perhaps insensitively, the students nicknamed their software Gaydar.
Researchers at Cornell University found that we’re only slightly optimistic when predicting others’ degree of morality but massively optimistic when predicting our own moral actions. When asked how many of their classmates would buy a daffodil at a campus-wide event supporting cancer research, 251 students said that 56 percent of all students would. In fact, 43 percent of students bought daffodils. But of these same students, 83 percent said they would, themselves, buy daffodils, almost doubly optimistic about their own behavior.
We overestimate our likelihood of voting and our willingness to help strangers. That is, unless we have direct experience with the problem. For example, we’re much better at predicting our own use of shady accounting practices if we’ve ever had to put a happy face on a failing business. (To know a man, walk a day with his calculator.)
In light of our shared moral failings, think about the desire to fire all immoral politicians and replace them with moral ones. This would cleanse the political system of corruption, right?