01541nas a2200205   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260001500043653002000058653001500078100002400093700001600117700002000133245013500153856005500288300000900343490000700352520096200359022001401321       2024                            d  c2024-02-0610aHuman behaviour10aPsychology1 aAmanda M. Lindkvist1 aLina Koppel1 aGustav Tinghög00aBounded research ethicality: researchers rate themselves and their field as better than others at following good research practice  uhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53450-0  a30500 v143 aBounded ethicality refers to people’s limited capacity to consistently behave in line with their ethical standards. Here, we present results from a pre-registered, large-scale (N = 11,050) survey of researchers in Sweden, suggesting that researchers too are boundedly ethical. Specifically, researchers on average rated themselves as better than other researchers in their field at following good research practice, and rated researchers in their own field as better than researchers in other fields at following good research practice. These effects were stable across all academic fields, but strongest among researchers in the medical sciences. Taken together, our findings illustrate inflated self-righteous beliefs among researchers and research disciplines when it comes to research ethics, which may contribute to academic polarization and moral blindspots regarding one’s own and one’s colleagues’ use of questionable research practices.  a2045-2322