Anti-Profit Bias Paper

Whether it's rising gas prices or micro-transactions, consumers attribute bad outcomes to profit seeking. A new paper studies the anti-profit bias of the public, and how it toys with their outlook.

in the first study, participants rated Fortune 500 companies in terms of how profitable they thought they were and how much they thought they engaged in bad business practices, such as operating at the expense of others with no concern for society. There was a clear pattern: the more profitable participants thought a company was, the more they assumed that it engaged in more bad business practices. In fact expert assessments of the firms shows the opposite pattern.

In a way, this hardly needs to be studied. Want to know that profit is socially good? Pick up an economics textbook. Want to know that the public doesn't recognize this? Go outside. Talk to a person.