Social Class and (Un)Ethical Behaviour: Causal and Correlational Evidence

Abstract Are individuals of higher socio-economic status less ethical than those lower status? Highly popularised research findings claim that this is the case. This paper provides evidence against claim, based on data from two large survey experiments with more 11,000 participants. We prime social in heterogeneous samples German population and then elicit behaviour an incentivised experimental task. Thus, our allows us to study both correlation (using demographic data) causality priming). Our rejects are accounts.