Greens more likely thieves and liars, says shock study

Er...

They were told the could help themselves to the cash and given permission to answer the questions incorrectly, presumably by the people running the study. That means that they weren't stealing or being dishonest. The real test would presumably be being told they shouldn't do either and then see who actually did do so?

Funny....

This study appears to have failed to produce any meaningful results.

Let's throw some leaders of industry and politics into this test and see if we can establish another link between thieves & liars.

Heck, we could do this all day.

Paradox alert!

"...insists Mazar, who claims to be a green consumer herself."

So it's a lie then. But if she's lying, then it's true that green consumers do lie, in which case.....

Obvious

This is why so many climate studies are based on three bloody trees! Those die-hard environmentalists who shop green are more likely to evangelically lie to defend their beliefs, well founded or not.

For some altruists lying, cheating, stealing, discrediting others and belching out junk psuedoscience is morally OK because it's for the 'greater good'. Mind you this whole does just demonstrate how policitians work, if you've got the keys to the safe and no-one's looking you're more likely to nick from it than not.

Does the dishonesty extend

to research/reporting of results as well - after all morally they are giving the right answers

wonder who funded the report GWB?

I can think of a conclusion

I've always thought green types can be prone to taking some small thing and blowing it all out of proportion; they can be overly zealous. In this study, the non-green types were told "to win the game you can 'cheat' " blah blah but they were like "wtf, this is just some lame psychobabble test, why bother". However, the green types' OCD kicked into overdrive and they went on an all out 'must win!' craze...

Not the best conclusion from the evidence perhaps, but I'd say better than the one published ;)

Hmmmm

I remember when my wife used to work in restaurants, several of them where health food / wholefood / veggie / vegan establishments, whats the point ?

I have so say that apart from riding bikes and supposedly eating healthy, I have yet to see people who drank & smoked to such excess.

It always struck me that they believed that they could trade one lifestyle aspect off against another (while assuming the moral high ground) this study seems to hint that I wasn't just imagining things.

@Stupid set up

It would probably be better to know what percentage of vegetarians are criminals...

You can trust me, I waste energy like there's no tomorrow. (pun intended)

Makes sense to me

There are many green issues about which the definitive answer isn't known. Are we primarily responsible for global warming? No one *knows*. Do mobile phones cause cancer? Know one *knows*. Why are the bees and sparrows disappearing? Know one knows.

But... many greenies get behind green issues like other folk get behind football teams. And trying to tell them they're not necessarily right is like telling a West Ham supporter that there's no point in their club existing because they're never going to win the premiership.

So the greenies start spouting *theories* as fact, and the more they push it, the more they start forcefully stating this stuff as though it is scientifically proven. But deep down they know they're lying. And if they're going to lie about that, they'll lie about other things. People are either liars or they're not.

All the people who suspect we're causing global warming just as much as the greenies, but are rational enough to recognise there is no unequivocal proof aren't perceived as greenies because they don't rant, and thus this study finds that greenies are liars, and proven liars at that!

Hmmmm

I don't shop at green stores, and just like Al Gore, I have no morals or conscience whatsoever.

@Apocalypse Later

Bwahahahahaha!!! Old hippies wiser than many? Oh, that's good! Now tell me how politicians are more honest these days ...

In my experience, old hippies are skeptical only of empirical evidence and common sense.

so...

we'd suggest, are far more likely to be ripped off by unscrupulous charlatans

They are stupid as well as lying cheating theives etc.

To whoever selected the story image...

Very well done!

Greens

Greens: 3% of the vote but want 100% of the attention. Just like any charlatan, con-merchant, spammer, authoritarian, cult leader, or anyone else who wants insists they should have more attention than anyone wishes to pay them.

as a Green

I find the study and article amusing. Lighten up, commentards!

Not surprised at all.

I've come up against this attitude in real life.

Green purchases are the liberal equivalent to papal indulgencies in the 21st century. It's not fair to just say greens, though. As an example, this works for both sides of the political fence:

"I'm against the death penalty, but for abortion."

"I'm against abortion, but I'm for the death penalty."

"I'm a Liberal, and all Conservatives are racist pr*cks"

"I'm a Conservative, and all Liberals are irreligious libertines"

"If I represent poor people, then I can aid and abet tax fraud/whatever ACORN's doing this week."

"If I go to church, then I can abuse people who do not meet my moral standards."

To be fair, the scientists needed to select and test for the "I do {foo}, which is good, so I can do {bar}, because I'm now a good person, and gosh darn it, people LIKE me." condition, as well as for evidence that forcing a dichotomous condition onto an argument that isn't really there leads to hypocrisy..

However, I think that many people will already know that that exists, and you can't tell the others anything anyway. May as well write "people are hypocrites" on the report and send the grant money back. Oh, wait. They are doing good research, no need to send it back.

meh

I have to admit that I understand neither the article nor most of the comments. See you in the pub.

Are you all blind? This has nothing to do with whether greens are thieves

The people selected for this test weren't environmentalists, they were just random normal everyday ordinary people, and the conclusion of the test is that everyday folk are more likely to cheat after shopping in a "green" supermarket than after shopping in an ordinary everyday supermarket.

It draws no conclusions about how *actual* greens behave, unless you make the additional supporting assumption that buying so-called green products actually really makes you into a real environmentalist, rather than, for example, it being a shallow and meaningless token gesture. But *real* greens aren't to be found trying to assuage their conscience by shopping for mass-produced goods in supermarkets. They figure it's better to just not buy lots of useless consumer crap in the first place.

In other words, this study tells us about the behaviour of hypocrites, not greens.

It's funny how many people have read the jokey-but-not-actually-real headline, found it confirms their favourite prejudice, and gone on to come out with pathetic little bits of armchair psychology that attempt to explain this non-finding that the study doesn't actually say. I'm talking to you, Adam Salisbury, peyton?, Rob Crawford, PerfectBlue, Anonymous Coward 12:14 GMT, Anonymous Coward 13:22 GMT, Aron, Anonymous Coward 15:04 GMT. You are clearly delusional; prejudiced so far beyond rationality that it is actually impeding your ability to comprehend what you read. Sure, you're welcome to hate hippies and greens for any reason you like or none at all, it's a free world, but you might actually want to be able to read and understand plain English without fooling yourself about what it says; you can still cling to your precious beliefs without having to fabricate falsehoods to deceive yourselves.

Then again, if your confidence in your beliefs is that fragile, maybe you should really consider whether you want to re-evaluate them? Maybe the reason you're so worried they could turn out to be false is because they are, in fact, false? That's the usual reason for getting so wound up and snobby and coming over all Telegraph-letters-page-angry-of-Tunbridge-Wells at people, after all.

@PerfectBlue

What a load of crock. Let me guess, you've never admitted to being wrong. You talk about people being "flexible" with their values and beliefs, like it's bad. I'll talk to you about people making up justifications to support their own beliefs in the face of undeniable evidence.

You've set up a false dichotomy between self-chosen values and the "right" set of values of the majority. In fact we all have outside influences but ultimately we have free will and are individually responsible for our choices.

If the majority is right, how can both the people of US and North Korea be right? How can both Jews and Muslims be right? Don't they all follow the majority beliefs in their societies? If you ever wondered how people justified to themselves taking part in the holocaust or slavery, look at your own post.

Don't try to hide behind the majority view, because if you know any history, the majority view changes. It was OK to be a racist in the USA 50 years ago, but not now. In fact green values have already become the norm in many countries. While SUVs are not evil in themselves, yes, it's antisocial to drive an SUV if you can make do with a less polluting alternative.

@are you all blind?

tl;dr

But I actually consider myself a green. I'm OCD about recycling anything and everything that can be recycled. I also do most of my grocery shopping at US hippie central, Whole Foods, where I am basically surround by the people in the study (well half the people in the study).

I'll just add that your post actually confirms my post, is full of fail, and I'll add the icon I guess I should have used earlier.

Calm down dude. Life's too short.