EMBRACING THE DARK SIDE? TESTING THE SOCIALIZATION OF A MAXIMIZING MINDSET

Previous literature suggests an ``economist effect'': business and economics students behave more like Homo economicus than do those from other disciplines. Does this represent selection of selfish maximizers into the disciplines, or a causal effect of study? We argue that common findings that behavior gets no ``worse'' over time represent overly simplistic tests. Our experiment investigates changes not just in behavior, but also in how participants feel about this behavior. Although we replicate the previous behavioral result, we find evidence that students learn to (1) attach less-negative normative weight to maximizing behavior, and (2) employ greater sophistication in its implementation. (JEL A20, D91, C9)