Who do you think you are – and how bad could you be?

Given the right (or wrong) situation, each of us might become anyone

What turns good people bad? The road to depravity and corruption, we tend to assume, is a slippery slope: a few small immoral acts, then things snowball, and before you know it, the floodgates have opened. (To clarify, this slippery slope is near a hydroelectric power plant, hence the floodgates. Also, it's snowing.)

But according to a recent Dutch study, a more appropriate metaphor might be stepping off a cliff. Participants were invited to roleplay a business negotiation, and got various options for bribing a public official: gradually, with various small inducements; with one big bribe; or not at all. The short version: they were far likelier to become corrupt when presented with a single "golden opportunity" than a series of incremental moral compromises. They didn't slide into wickedness. They plummeted.