A study found that air pollution not only affects health but can also lead to unethical behavior such as crime and infidelity.
The combination of archives and experimental studies suggests that exposure to air pollution, both physically and mentally, is associated with unethical behavior. Research suggest that this is related to increased anxiety.
Researcher Jackson G. Lu of Columbia Business School stated that the study revealed that air pollution may have more potential ethical costs than health and the environment.
"Our research show that air pollution not only damages people's health but can also pollute their morality," Lu added.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, examines air pollution and crime data for 9,360 cities in the United States collected over a period of nine years.
The air pollution data includes information about six major pollutants, including particles, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Meanwhile, crime data includes information about violations in seven main categories, including murder, attacks, and higher-level robberies.
The researchers found that cities with higher levels of air pollution also tend to have higher crime rates.
The relationship is even more visible after the researchers take into account other potential factors such as population size, number of law enforcement officers, average age, gender distribution, race distribution, poverty level, unemployment rate, unobserved heterogeneity among cities, and influence unobserved time.
The researchers conducted several experiments to see a direct connection between air pollution and unethical behavior.
According to the researchers, previous research has shown that exposure to air pollution increases the feelings of individual anxiety. Anxiety itself is known to correlate with various unethical behaviors.
The researchers hypothesize, pollution can ultimately increase criminal activity and unethical behavior due to increased anxiety.
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