“Ethicists’ Courtesy at Philosophy Conferences”, 2011-09-06 (; similar):
If philosophical moral reflection tends to promote moral behavior, one might think that professional ethicists would behave morally better than do socially comparable non-ethicists.
We examined three types of courteous and discourteous behavior at American Philosophical Association conferences: talking audibly while the speaker is talking (versus remaining silent), allowing the door to slam shut while entering or exiting mid-session (versus attempting to close the door quietly), and leaving behind clutter at the end of a session (versus leaving one’s seat tidy).
By these three measures, audiences in ethics sessions did not appear to behave any more courteously than did audiences in non-ethics sessions. However, audiences in environmental ethics sessions did appear to leave behind less trash.
[Keywords: ethics, ethics professors, etiquette, metaphilosophy, morality, moral behavior, philosophers, psychology of philosophy, sociology of philosophy]