IG NOBEL ECONOMICS PRIZE 2026 [USA, MEXICO, CANADA] Paul Piff, Daniel Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner, for amassing evidence that upper class people are more likely to snatch from a children’s supply of candy, and engage in other kinds of unethical behavior.
REFERENCE: “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior,” Paul K. Piff, Daniel M. Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 109, no. 11, 2012, pp. 4086-4091. <doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118373109> WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Paul Piff
Practice beats theory in ethical behavior too. I grew comfortably in a house with very woke principles (before “woke” was turned into a pejorative). My partner just grew up in a large, poor family.
She is a much better person than I am.
“Those candies are for the children” for her is now like muscle memory. Her instinct, carved by years in a big family, is to mentally count the children and the candies in the jar and to split the candies in two if there are more children than candies. Because that’s what her elders used to do for her as a child.
For me it’s more hit and miss. I do a lot of things semi-consciously before I can stop to think “oh, those were supposed to be for the children”. I do know the theory. In theory I am not a bad person, I promise.
I agree that it’s something that needs to be practiced, like a muscle.