Early Risers are Less Honest during Night Hours: Study

A new study finds early risers are more likely to be morally impaired and dishonest during night hours.

The saying goes," early to bed, early to rise makes man healthy, wealthy and wise". But findings by Harvard University prove that this might not be the case for individuals who start their day early in the morning or are 'early-rising larks'. They hold early rising larks tend to be more unethical in late-night hours than those who wake up late or 'night-owls'.

The study led by Sunita Sah, assistant professor of Strategy Economics, Ethics and Public Policy  at Georgetown University and Researcher at the Harvard University, discovered differences in people's ethical choices during different hours of the day, which can mostly have long-term implications on their professional life, reports the BBC New.

The experts observed 200 participants as they took up problem-solving tests and games that promised to reward them with $10 for finishing before time to note how scrupulous they are. The subjects' ethical choices, level of honesty and chronotype or time when they preferred to hit the sack or usually felt energetic were recorded. It was found the individuals who woke up early in the mornings remained honest during day hours while, night owls were more ethical at night time.

The researchers noticed the participants' dishonest behaviors generally occurred when they felt sleepy and tired. These ethical choices and decisions were made to match according to the situations. The results also indicate an employee's chronotype, work and shift timing influences his professional integrity and conduct, reports the BBC News.

The authors believe our internal body clock and circadian rhythm influences the attitude towards ethics and morality. However, this trial debunks old notions that late night- workers are mostly bad behaved.