Does Scientific Literacy Make People More Ethical?

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday March 30, 2013 @08:14AM from the engaged-with-reality dept.

New submitter alysion writes "Per research published in the online journal PLOS One, psychologists Christine Ma-Kellams of Harvard University and Jim Blascovich of the University of California, Santa Barbara report, 'Thinking about science leads individuals to endorse more stringent moral norms.' In one of the four supporting experiments, undergraduates considered an account of a date rape and were asked to judge behavior on a scale of 1 to 100. Science types, perhaps not surprisingly, proved to have a better grasp of reality, including the moral kind."

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Re:Well, in my line of work by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-30 10:12 · Score: 0, Redundant

AC is absolutely correct. There are more than just 40 or 50 scientists in the world. The fact that a few scientists do immoral things in the name of science doesn't detract from the numerous scientists who are upright and well-intentioned citizens capable of compassion and virtuous to a fault.