How moral symbols increased customer food payments by $1.83

Noticing that people can behave poorly in work environments (e.g. overbilling customers), organizational behavior expert Dr. Sreedhari Desai researched how behavioral nudges could increase ethical behavior.¹ Through physical design, Desai studied how displaying moral symbols could reduce unethical behavior, where traditional methods like positive reinforcement and behavior monitoring failed. The goal was to address unethical behavior between consumers and retailers, and between employees and supervisors.

For instance, by implementing portraits of moral leaders at One World Cafe, Desai found that customers voluntarily paid an average of $1.83 USD more per plate of food.¹ Intrigued by the influence of moral symbols, Desai conducted a lab experiment and found that those who were exposed to moral symbols (i.e. portraits of ethical figures in history) were significantly less likely to impose unethical demands upon subordinates. Desai also found that, outside the lab setting, supervisors exposed to moral symbols were less likely to request unethical actions from their employees.