Bankers are just like you and me
When I was young, being a banker was a status symbol. They made lots of money and were masters of the universe. On the dating circuit, that certainly gave you a leg up. But since the financial crisis (if not already before), the reputation of bankers has taken a severe hit. In the media, bankers are typically represented by greedy crooks like Bernard Madoff or Steve Cohen, and being a banker is something that you don’t openly admit to with strangers these days (at least not in the leftist circles that I sometimes frequent).
But that bankers aren’t so bad after all, can be seen in a new study where the c.38,000 employees of a large global bank in 55 countries were asked to rank their values in life. To be precise, they were asked one of the questions of the World Values Survey (WVS):
Here is a list of 11 qualities children can be encouraged to learn at home. Which do you consider to be especially important? (Rank top five)
The list of 11 qualities ranges from independence and hard work to obedience. The chart below shows the differences in responses between bankers and the general public in each of the eleven categories. To read this chart, a little bit of explanation is necessary. For each quality, the chart plots the median difference in the share of respondents that have picked this quality as particularly important. The blue dot shows the difference between high-level bankers and the general public (as measured in the World Values Survey). The red dot measures the difference between lower ranked bankers and the general public, and the green dot the difference between top bankers and lower-ranked bankers. The vertical lines provide a 95% confidence interval.
Differences in values between bankers and the public
Source: Ashraf et al. (2020).
The best thing about the chart is that in terms of selfishness, bankers are almost exactly where the general public is. They abhor selfishness just like everyone else does. Similarly, bankers are just like everybody else in their appreciation for responsibility, hard work, tolerance, and independence.
But there are four areas where bankers differ significantly from the general public:
Obedience: Bankers are far less likely than the public to consider obedience to authority a quality they want to see in their children. Instead, bankers tend to be more averse to obedience as a value in life.
Religious faith: Bankers tend to be more secular than the general public.
Thrift: Bankers find the ability to live within their means and be thrifty with money to be less important than the general public (ok, this one is worrisome…).
Self-expression: Bankers find it more important than the general public to be able to express their personality in their jobs and in life in general and think that their children should be raised to do so as well.
Make of these observations what you will, but in every one of these cases, there is a pattern that stands out. Looking at the blue, red, and green dots, we can see that the differences between lower ranked bankers and the general public tend to be lower than the differences between higher-ranked bankers and the public. But the difference between high ranked and low ranked bankers are virtually non-existent. What that shows is that bankers acquire their particular values during their careers. At the beginning of their careers, they tend to be much more like the general public, but the culture within banks and the values of their superiors tend to influence them and make them value certain qualities more than others. And if you ask me, a lack of appreciation for blind obedience or a willingness to “live the job” to the degree that it becomes a form of self-expression isn’t the worst quality one can have.