Let me lead this surprising revelation with the caveat that the study is comparing male and female lawyers negotiating settlements on behalf of their clients and faced with a choice between agreeing to withhold critical information or following little understood codes of professional responsibility.

Still.

Haven't thousands of post-'08-economic melt-down articles suggested that if we'd had more women minding the chicken coop, there would have been far fewer foxes feeding there?

Then along come a couple of professors who may (or may not) have shattered the stereotype of the highly moral, collaborative, justice-minded woman and the dog-eat-dog, winning-is-everything, I've-got-your-morality-right-here man.

Let's take a look at the study and the problems it raises.

In a survey of  more than 700 practicing lawyers, Art Hinshaw and Jess K. Alberts asked participants whether or not they'd be willing to engage in a fraudulent negotiation scheme.

The result is dispiriting.

...

Read the full report by Victoria Pynchon of the Chicago Tribune at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/plus/nsc-chi-men-more-moral-nego...

The (112 page) study is available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2097972