Today's dose of unsurprising news comes from a study conducted by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania which revealed that college students who cheated on even the most simple tasks were more likely to go after government jobs

The results of the study, which involved hundreds of students in Bangalore, India, were released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study suggests that the driving forces behind government corruption could revolve around who actually gets those government jobs. If positions go to virtuous folks, all the better; if they go do shady individuals, expect scandal and corruption. 

For the study, 600 students finishing college in India were asked to roll dice 42 times and reveal which number they got on each roll. The higher the number, the more money they would receive. Though researchers were unable to prove for certain if any student lied, they were able to tell that the reported numbers were vastly different than the numbers that would turn up randomly when the dice were rolled. 

As expected, the results reflected widespread cheating, and students who cheated were 6.3 percent more likely to want to work in government. That's the way of the world.

[via Los Angeles Times]