Why do cheaters turn out to be the ultimate losers?

Dishonest and immoral people are generally viewed as being bad at their jobs, according to a new study. People who commit moral transgression like cheating and shoplifting are viewed as less able to do their jobs or complete tasks effectively and low in social intelligence levels, researchers say. "It includes characteristics such as taking the others' perspectives, being adaptable, managing impressions of oneself and adhering to established social norms," said lead author Jennifer Stellar from the University of Toronto in Canada. Across these experiments, the researchers depicted individuals acting immorally in hypothetical scenarios, acting selfishly in economic games, cheating on a lab task or receiving low morality ratings from co-workers. Individuals, who had acted immorally, were consistently rated as less capable of doing their jobs, and were viewed as generally less competent than someone who had acted morally by, for instance, donating to charity.