>>>http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/07/22/0236213/experiment-shows-people-exposed-to-east-german-socialism-cheat-more?sdsrc=popbyskid
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>>The article seems a bit slanted. The difference in behaviour was surely not down to the capitalist/socialist nature of the respective states but because of the 'police state' nature of East Germany. Looking at a sample from a capitalistic police state would probably provide the same results as the E German sample.
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>And small-time cheating the system was a part of the system, it was widely tolerated. OK, we did have a much softer one here, but I've been to the two neighboring countries many times, and the general attitude was that it's bad to cheat your neighbor, but no problem if you cheat the system. I remember forged movie tickets (we kids did it sometimes), never getting exact change at the cash register, siphoning gas from office cars, fake sick leaves...

True. I spent about a year in the USSR in the '80s (think it was '80s anyway - Breznev was in charge) and witnessed the same thing.