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Britain is a nation of morally dubious, unethical people, while Americans are the most ethical people in the English-speaking world, according to an online survey.

The survey of the ethical values of 20,738 Times Online users in 162 countries was conducted by Roger Steare, from Cass Business School.

The results also suggest that women are more virtuous than men, that those with religious beliefs are more principled than atheists and that those with strong political beliefs are considerably less moral than those without. Here is a full breakdown of the results:

Are women more virtuous?

Women outscore men on every moral conscience. "This suggests that women are not only more caring and altruistic than men; they may also be more virtuous," Professor Steare said. He also pointed out that homemakers and those working in healthcare, charity, the arts and the media tend to have female-shaped ethical profiles, with higher levels of social and principled conscience compared with rules compliance.

Wisdom comes with age

As we grow older, the way in which we make ethical decisions changes: as children, we merely abide by the rules; as we age, we start to consider the feelings of others and what we believe to be fair. The transition from moral infancy to maturity is late, however — at about the age of 33. Yet our moral development continues well into our 50s, a finding that caused Professor Steare to note: "Organisations that fail to retain the wisdom and good thinking of older workers are placing themselves at a serious commercial disadvantage."

Beyond the age of 60, the survey results show that we start to regress slightly, perhaps as we become more dependent on others and the rules they impose. The ethical profile of the retired people surveyed revealed a "Victor Meldrew mentality" with a very high-principled conscience but low rules compliance.

Unethical Brits, ethical Americans

US nationals scored the highest on every scale surveyed and the British the lowest. "The one consolation for the British is that the shape of their moral profile is female, we care — but maybe not enough," Professor Steare said. South Africans scored highly on rule compliance and principled conscience — a very male score. New Zealanders, Australians and Canadians scored well on social conscience. The American scores may be linked to the high incidence of religious belief in the United States, the professor said — he would like to translate the English-language survey into other languages to compare results worldwide.

Caring religions

People who said that they had a religious faith scored higher than those with no stated religious belief. The main difference between the religions was the propensity to follow rules. "This would suggest that religious conflict and hatred are not the result of differences in virtue or altruism but are fuelled by differences in dogma," Professor Steare said. The Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus surveyed were the most rule-compliant — the athesists, Buddhists and Jews the least.

Are politicans really sleazy?

Firm political beliefs were associated with lower scores on all ethical dimensions surveyed. Those with no political allegiance scored highest for all measures. Those with moderate political views also outscored both those who said their views were Left of Centre or Right of Centre. Moderate and right-of-centre participants in the survey had male-shaped moral profiles, indicating a preference for justice. Those with left-of-centre views had female-shaped profiles, suggesting a more caring approach.

The ethical profiles by occupation show that those working in both local and central government scored poorly — local government workers scored lowest of all the occupations surveyed.

Computer says "no"

"The challenge for leaders in both government and the private sector is to ask why most of their scores are low, morally immature or simply show that they could not care less about the customer? When do they intend to grow up and do something about it?" Professor Steare said of the survey results that were ranked by occupation. Workers in technology, energy, utilities, banking and other customer-facing businesses all scored low for social conscience. "The test results seem to be more consistent with the Little Britain mantra of ‘computer says no’ than treating customers fairly," he said. Those in the Armed Services, healthcare, chemical industries, banking, and financial services, perhaps reassuringly, showed a high desire to follow rules.

The role of education

The survey results show that our ethical profiles change depending not only on our age but also on the level of education attained. We become less rule-compliant and more principled as we move from secondary education through to professional or postgraduate level. Our social conscience falls though. We learn to make good decisions based on reason, but perhaps we lose a little human empathy in the process.

Download the full report at: www.ethicability.org

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