(Source: File Photo)Exposure to air pollution, even imaginative, may lead to unethical behaviour such as crime and cheating, according to a study conducted on adults in India and the US. “Our findings suggest that air pollution not only corrupts people’s health, but also can contaminate their morality,” said Lu. In one study, the researchers examined air pollution and crime data for 9,360 US cities collected over a nine-year period. Since they could not randomly assign participants to physically experience different levels of air pollution, the researchers manipulated whether participants imagined experiencing air pollution. As the researchers hypothesised, anxiety level mediated the link between imagining exposure to air pollution and unethical behaviour.

Source: Indian Express February 08, 2018 07:27 UTC