Professional choices influence valued outcomes such as income, life satisfaction, and social status. However, public opinion polls consistently illustrate that an individual's profession also influences how honest one is perceived to be, and people are motivated to see themselves as honest for many reasons. Why would people choose professions that do not confer them with the benefits of honesty? Survey data reveals honesty perceptions to positively correlate with a profession's conferred prestige (i.e., perceived value to society) and negatively correlate with a profession's annual income. The tradeoff between income and honesty perceptions suggests a wage differential mechanism—employees may maintain a positive self-concept through increased income which compensates for costs incurred by working in a profession characterized by low honesty.

职业选择会影响重要的结果，例如收入、生活满意度和社会地位。然而，民意调查一致表明，个人的职业也会影响人们对诚实的看法，人们出于多种原因被激励认为自己是诚实的。为什么人们会选择不能赋予他们诚实好处的职业？调查数据显示，诚实感知与职业的声望（即对社会的感知价值）呈正相关，与职业的年收入呈负相关。