Mid-day Extra: Are cheaters more creative?

So we’re all taught from a young age that cheating is wrong. And in school, and in the workplace, creativity is considered a good thing — and it’s rewarded. But according to a new study, creative people are also more likely to cheat.

In today’s Mid-day Extra, we ask: can creativity cause harm in the workplace?

Francesca Gino worked on the study, and she’s a professor at Harvard Business School. She joins us from Cambridge, Mass. to explain why inspired the idea.

According to her, the research was in part inspired by media coverage of famous cheaters like Bernie Madoff, and how they were often described as “evil geniuses.” It turns out, even controlling for intelligence, people that are more creative are more likely to cheat… or, in her words, be “morally flexible.”