About that "expensive" watch you're wearing

Did you perhaps pick up an “expensive” Rorex on your last business trip? How’s it affecting your on-the-job performance? Adversely, according to research described as part of the New York Times Magazine’s “The 9th Annual Year in Ideas” report. In a section titled “The Counterfeit Self,” Marina Krakovsky writes, “Wearing imitation designer clothing or accessories can fool others—but no matter how convincing the knockoff, you never, of course, fool yourself. It’s a small but undeniable act of duplicity.”

Krakovsky writes that three researchers—psychologists Francesca Gino, Michael Norton, and Dan Ariely—attempted to measure the psychological toll of such duplicity. To do that, they administered a self-graded math test to experimental subjects—half of which thought they were wearing genuine designer eyewear and half of which thought they were wearing cheap knockoffs. The result? Participants who thought they were wearing counterfeit eyewear were much more likely to cheat. Says Gino, “When one feels like a fake, he or she is likely to behave like a fake.”

Krakovsky hypothesizes that other types of fakery could also lead to ethical lapses and quotes Gino as saying, “There are lots of situations on the job where we’re not true to ourselves, and we might not realize there might be unintended consequences.”

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See related item about a glow-in-the-dark dog.