If you see poop…You’ll lie, cheat and steal!

Garbage In / Garbage Out isn’t anything new, but these researchers actually put it to the test and what they found was fascinating.

Researchers Karen Winterich, Vikas Mittal and Andrea Morales wanted to know how much being “disgusted” would influence a person’s likelihood to lie and cheat.  (If you’re as big of a  “why do people do what they do” nerd as I am you can read the whole report here.)

So they showed a group of people a video of a filthy toilet and another group of people a video of National Geographic video of a peaceful coral reef.

Immediately after watching the videos both groups had their level of “disgust” measured on a scale of 1-10.  The group who viewed the filthy toilet rated their level of disgust as 8.83 and the coral reef group stated that their level of disgust was only 1.73.

Both groups were then given the opportunity to lie and cheat someone out of a dollar.  67% of the filthy toilet group lied gain $1, while only 35% of the coral reef group lied.

Even when shown objects as innocuous as diapers, anti-diahrrea medication and cat litter (rather than light bulbs, shampoo and candles) the “disgusted” group was more likely to lie to the researchers to profit as little as $2.

So how about that?

So be careful little eyes what you see.  When we fill our minds up with filth, filth is what comes back out.

Phillipians 4:8  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.