Air Pollution Makes You Unethical, Study Says

A new study has shown that exposure to increased levels of air pollution, and even imagining exposure to air pollution, may lead to “unethical behavior,” according to a journal released by the Association for Psychological Science last week.

Unethical behavior is defined as conduct that relates to crime and cheating and is believed to occur in part as a side effect of increased anxiety. In turn, previous studies have suggested that an individual can suffer exacerbated levels of anxiety when exposed to air pollution.

The findings, summarized by Science Daily, were based on a number of studies, including one in which pollutant data collected from over 9,000 US cities over nine years, and found that cities with higher levels of air pollution were also inclined to have higher levels of crime. The results persisted even when other potential factors such as total population and number of law enforcement employees etc. were accounted for.

In an additional experiment, created to establish a causal link between exposure of air pollution and untoward behavior, the researchers showed 256 participants either a picture of a clean environment or a polluted environment and were asked to reflect on how they might feel as they explored the area.

Alongside the mental portion of the test, the researchers also created a computer program, a supposedly unrelated task whereby participants had to match cue words and were given a monetary reward for each correct answer. A seemingly accidental computer glitch made it so that the participants could peek at the answer if they wished. How many times they cheated was then recorded by the observers.

Those that were asked to imagine breathing in a polluted environment prior to the computer portion of the test were found to cheat more than those that were shown a clean environment.

Most pressing to us Beijingers, especially for the already jittery editors among us, is that in a separate experiment participants were again shown pictures of a Beijing environment, polluted and clean, and then asked to write about what they thought it would be like to live there. Independent readers then rated the essays according to how much anxiety the participants expressed and found that those who imagined living in a polluted environment demonstrated more anxiety in their writing. As the researchers hypothesized, anxiety level mediated the link between imagining exposure to air pollution and unethical behavior.

Though the researchers admit that imagining pollution is not the same as living with it, the evidence points towards the mere thought of it heightening our levels of anxiety, and in turn, the number of unethical acts we’re willing to commit.

Make what you may of these findings, we’d suggest you try to stay on your best behavior come Beijing's next smog day, and try and cut us some slack if our writing seems a little on edge.

Images: Thafcc, Lu et al. (Psychological Science)