Do we lie more to our bosses in the morning or in the afternoon?

An article published in the journal Psychological Science, and that The Atlantic has echoed, describes the influence of the hours of the day for ethical behaviors. The research, led by Maryam Kouchaki (Center for study of ethics Harvard University Edmond J. Safra) and Isaac H. Smith (Department of management, University of Utah) were analyzed in four experiments if we lie more in the morning or in the afternoon: both high school students and a sample of the U.S. population behaves more ethics (without lying or copying in exams) in the morning.

This "morality morning effect", named for the authors of the work, was mediated by the decline of the moral conscience and self-control of the afternoon. On the other hand, the effect of the time of day in the unethical behavior was stronger in people less prone to disassociate itself from the point of view of morality. For researchers, these results highlight the fact that a simple factor as widespread as the time of day has important implications for moral behavior.

Taking this research as a starting point, another group of researchers wondered if the moral effect of the morning may miss a described element of sleep research: that people have specific cronotype. I.e. that you are predisposed to the sense of alert in different times of the day because the moral effect of the morning, as they noted, does not consider the part of the population - from approximately 40 per cent-whose vitality flourishes as they pass the hours of the day. These scientists have carried out a study in this regard, that it will be also published in Psychological Science, and showing that a night person is approximately three times more likely to behave in a unethical in the morning than a person's morning habits.

"An important aspect of this research is not morning people have more moral, in reality is the combination which is more important: people who like most morning is more ethics in the morning, but people who like more night are more ethical by night", said Sunita Shah, co-author of the study and an Assistant Professor of business ethics at Georgetown University, in Washington.