But the article's memorability turned out to be a problem, Schwitzgebel said in an interview. The belief that ethicists behave worse has almost become an academic urban legend of its own.
His study of ethicists' book-stealing habits was his first on the topic of the moral behavior of ethicists - and remains his most cited study on the topic. But his later research, conducted with Joshua Rust, an assistant professor of philosophy at Stetson University, has found that ethicists behave no morally differently than do others: no better, no worse.
"My first article on this subject is almost propagating this myth that ethicists behave worse," Schwitzgebel said. "There's a lot going on underneath academic memorableness. There are some things that strike us as memorable, emblematic, worth repeating ... that propagate through the academic discourse. And once they've propagated enough they seem to be common knowledge."