I conducted an experiment to test the hypothesis that privilege fosters a sense of entitlement, leading one to behave in unethical ways, ways that benefit the self at the expense of the welfare of others. To test this hypothesis, participants engaged in a role play exercise in which they are awarded a scholarship (conferred privilege), denied a scholarship (denied privilege), or receive no feedback (control) on a test of perceptive ability. After, participants completed measures to assess feelings of entitlement. Participants completed a difficult test of knowledge and self-report their scores. Unethical behavior was measured by the disparity between the participants actual score and reported score on the test. On the basis of my hypothesis, I predicted that participants in the conferred privilege condition would report a greater sense of entitlement and thus would cheat in reporting their test scores more than participants in the denied privilege and control conditions
