Moral hypocrisy: This is an insightful, and simple, experiment done to measure perceived fairness, and hypocrisy in humans (those silly hypocritical creatures).

The paper measures the difference in decision outcomes between initial “knee-jerk” reactions, and more thoughtful decisions. Giving the participants the task of memorizing a number seemed to make a large difference in the decisions. I was particularly surprised that a task this simple had such drastic effects on the results.

I have seen a few studies of this kind before, and most seemed to argue that the original “knee-jerk” decision was the one to be trusted. I’m happy to see an example where this is not the case. This might bring some comfort to my over-analytical self.

But also, it is more evidence that we as a society should place more emphasis on further developing analytical skills. Many times, justification for teaching a subject such as math, music or science involves the development of logical thinking, better understanding of the universe, or some other objective. But increasing fairness seems to be equally big, and benefits society as a whole in a tangible way.

As a side note, I also wonder whether or not this can be used as a “manipulative tool” (in this case, perhaps “manipulative” would be a positive thing, as it would be to convince someone to act more fairly. I couldn’t think of a word like it with a positive connotation).