In the financial industry, new research suggests it may not be the apples that are bad; it may be the barrel. In a study by Chicago Booth postdoc Alain Cohn and two University of Zurich coauthors, roughly 200 bank employees—128 from an unnamed international bank and 80 from other banks—were asked a series of questions intended to remind them either of their profession or their personal lives. Afterward they tossed a coin 10 times and reported the results. The researchers gave the subjects an incentive to cheat: for each toss, either heads or tails would win a $20 reward, and no one was watching.

In the charts at right the binomial results show the reported outcomes researchers would expect from honest participants. The control group, who answered questions about their personal lives, reported successful coin flips 51.6 percent of the time, only slightly above chance. But subjects primed with questions about their professional identity reported a much higher success rate of 58.2 percent. The isolated light blue bar on the far right represents those who claimed to have flipped heads or tails successfully all 10 times, winning $200.

The researchers attribute the discrepancy to a banking culture that weakens social norms and rewards fraud. A change in that culture is essential, they write; long-term economic stability depends on people’s trust in bankers’ honesty.