>>>>>>http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/07/22/0236213/experiment-shows-people-exposed-to-east-german-socialism-cheat-more?sdsrc=popbyskid
>>>>>
>>>>>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.
>>>>
>>>>>capitalistic police state
>>>>
>>>>Oxymoron ? :-\
>>>
>>>Why. South Africa in apartheid days, Chile, Cuba (pre-revolution) etc.
>>
>>Looks like you saw the Wiki article :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state
>>
>>If "police state" includes economic control, that's not compatible with capitalism as most would like it to be. Crony capitalism or kleptocracy, sure.
>>
>>Maybe the issue is more with living under repression and/or corruption, rather than socialism. Of course, that begs the question of whether socialism suffers from them more than "other forms [of government] that have been tried from time to time" ;)
>
>All probably true. Just thought the whole thing was a bit disingenuous.
>We don't know that the question was. What an 'improbably high number' was etc.
>The whole thing might boil down to rich v poor.
>People from a wealthier society might not bother to cheat for the sage of $6.

There's been a fair amount of research recently on when and how much people will cheat. Check out the work of Dan Ariely.

Tamar