Even if you feel grumpy in the morning, chances are that at least you’re more moral.
A new study involving a U researcher claims that morality decreases as the day goes by.
Isaac Smith, a graduate teaching assistant at the School of Business, and Maryam Kouchaki, a research fellow at Harvard who earned her Ph.D at the U, ran a series of tests aiming to quantify moral behavior, involving two screens covered with dots. If the test participants said the right screen had more dots, they were awarded money.
The study found that as the day progressed, subjects were more likely to lie about which side had the most dots.
The series of tests concluded that the participants in the morning session, from eight to noon, were less likely to lie or cheat than those in the noon till six afternoon session.
The premise of the study states that moral behavior is like a muscle — the brain gets tired — and refers to this as “the morning morality effect.” Constant moral decision-making eventually begins to wear out people’s moral muscles, the report states. In short, as the day continues people become morally exhausted and willpower weakens.
“Our study suggests that the unremarkable activities of everyday living can lead people to have less self control in the afternoon, versus the morning,” Smith said in an email interview.
According to the study, suffering from a lack of sleep, performing tasks that require repeated “self-regulatory resources” and dealing with time-pressured circumstances may cause a person’s moral fortitude to become jeopardized.
Kouchaki said in an email that it does not matter what time a person actually starts their day. “The morning morality effect” is related to moral fortitude exhaustion, and not the time the working day begins.
“Self-regulatory resource depletion starts from the moment someone wakes up,” Kouchaki said. “So, time is the reference point for the degree of depletion.”
Smith said their thesis does not suggest there is anything “magical or cosmic about the a.m. versus p.m.,” but instead it is self-control that lessens the more we use it at any given stretch.
Sleep gives people’s moral muscles the opportunity to replenish, and they wake up with a full tank of moral aptitude.
Corey Williams, a senior in parks, recreation and tourism, does not feel as though he becomes less moral as the day goes on, but is open to the possibility that he becomes grumpier.
“I don’t think my morality decreases — probably just my mood. So if I’m feeling more likely to snap at someone, it would happen later at night,” Williams said.
Brian Gee, a junior in graphic design, agrees with Williams and said his mood is more likely to dictate his moral behavior.
“I don’t really see myself any more or less moral in the morning,” Gee said. “It really is more about my mood that effects the whole day itself.”
Kouchaki said that their research did not look into caffeine use.
Kouchaki and Smith believe that their research has potential impact on our personal lives as well as in the business world.
“The more aware we are of the potential influences on our decisions, the more effectively we can make choices consistent with our personal morals and values,” Smith said.