Competitive market culture displaces moral self-reflection in traders.

Evidence

Some of the tipsters got caught up in the intensely competitive culture of investment trading. Using a military metaphor, Adam Smith, an executive in the Galleon Group, compared having the competitive edge of research-based findings and illicit tips with having two torpedoes: “If one of them misses, the other is likely to hit” (Lattman & Ahmed, 2011). He found the fierce competition of the financial markets “exhilarating” but seemed to find little time for self-reflection on the broader purpose and morality of his work life. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1468

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Competition has migrated from market structure into the very character of individuals — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 22; McCloskey holds that market exchange cultivates moral virtues in participants. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 74; Markets sustain social bonds and moral codes even as they conceal exploitation — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 162