I think meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting really it turns out lying is the natural order of things we put 15 highschool kids into a tempting situation to see if they lie we told them we wanted to test the relationship between height and coordination that was in fact a lie first we measured height next we invited them to toss beanbags through three holes of decreasing size and to make it more interesting we told them we pay them three dollars for each beanbag they got through the smallest hole $2 from middle size and $1 for the biggest hole and to make it tempting we asked them to track their own scores how do you see where we're going with this but to keep it scientific we used a hidden camera to watch what really happened watch this kid here's his to explore and listen to his report or score three threes to choose money that's a 240 presents we're live but this young man claimed it out of a possible 15 dollars he had earned [Music] all told 80% of the substance line and the irony here is that most of these subjects had just finished a Bible study class so what's going on are these just bad kids do we lie just because we can here's some BS you can use when we and others lie we typically attribute it to a moral defect well I do I think either I'm evil or more likely he's evil we watch others tell lies and we think they must just have a cankered soul the psychologist Albert bandura suggests much of our problem isn't moral defect but moral slumber in other words were capable of making good moral choices but we just aren't thinking about this choice as a moral one we're morally asleep you know this is a pretty big idea because if it's true we need to spend less time judging each other and more effort alerting each other but would that work next we brought in 15 more kids and gave them the same instructions the only change this time was we asked them to promise to be honest we assured them they were on their own but invited them to indicate their commitment by signing an honor code that's the more wake up call now watch what happens here's the star of a high school basketball team boy named Jake any scores and he report sick he faces humiliation with honesty in this condition the results were reversed this time 80% told the truth that's staggering they traded money for morality willingly so what's the point many of our moral lacking are conscious of mindless it isn't that we compromise our conscience it's that our conscience is asleep left the building we can make the world a more moral place by simply judging less and talking more we can assume others just aren't aware and give them and us a moral wake-up call little nudge to invite them to bring values they already hold to a specific decision but you have to do it in the right way not a lecture not a command polite reminder preferably prior to the moment of decision well let's say you're getting an estimate for a car repair don't shy away from saying it's very important to me to be treated fairly may I have your word that you will look out for my interests there's a big message here for leaders if you aren't frequently infusing workplace decisions with appropriate moral meaning you and your people will likely drift off in the moral slumbers so you have two options either offer moral wake-up calls or invest more in auditing I'm David Maxfield and I'm Joseph granny and that's all the be has for today sharpen your behavioral science skills by subscribing to our channel for our latest videos and updates click here to subscribe where we always promise to share some BS you can use one of the the biggest drivers of moral disengagement is social norms if you enter a system where other people seem to be ok with moral lapses then we adopt that immediately in an unquestioning way it's easy another is where there are set rules to follow and we're used to following and setting these protocols and we don't notice that these protocols are now coming into conflict abroad or moral principles [Music]