Do "Geeks" have a stronger moral core?

[_underscore]

I was just having this discussion with someone, and was curious to expand the audience a tad. Would it be fair or unfair to state that the average Comic Con crowd would contain fewer criminals than a random sampling of civilians?

(The theory being that "geeks" that have been raised reading about heroes and villains might have a stronger moral code than kids who grew up with more tones of grey around them.)

Agree or disagree?

[Froggy]

Disagree. There are a lot of geeks with bad morals too

[FanboyStranger]

No, not at all.

[kalorama]

Oh, hell no. (But I'm sure that are plenty who delude themselves into thinking that to be true.)

And as a general rule, the people most likely to believe themselves morally superior to others are the least likely to actually be morally superior to anyone.

[Mister Mets]

I don't know if geeks have a higher moral core.

My guess is that the average Comic Con crowd would contain fewer criminals than a random sampling of civilians, but much of that is because it would also include people who are better educated and with more disposable income than average.

[Paradox]

Of course not. Being a fan of entertainment of any form is no indication of your "moral core". And whether or not you're a "criminal" has nothing to do with your morals, either. Being a criminal is being a lawbreaker. Laws are prohibitions on BEHAVIOR, not morals. You can follow all the laws and not be a person with high morals at all.

[t hedge coke]

My guess is that the average Comic Con crowd would contain fewer criminals than a random sampling of civilians, but much of that is because it would also include people who are better educated and with more disposable income than average.

Are you serious? If those were what it took to stop crime there wouldn't be a corrupt government in the world. And, cocaine sales would probably go down.

(Just for the US: Colleges are chock full of education, and there's still what, twenty percent of the women involved in campuses being sexually assaulted every year?)

I was just having this discussion with someone, and was curious to expand the audience a tad. Would it be fair or unfair to state that the average Comic Con crowd would contain fewer criminals than a random sampling of civilians?

Not even a tiny bit.

The theory being that "geeks" that have been raised reading about heroes and villains might have a stronger moral code than kids who grew up with more tones of grey around them.

Everyone is raised on stories with heroes and villains. That's called television. Or fairytales. Novels. Movies. Bedtime stories. Grandpa's wartime anecdotes.

Clifford the Big Red Dog is a hero.

Clifford fans probably have a stronger moral core than Spider-Man fans, when it comes down to it. Whether they're geeks or not.

[Arvandor]

That is possibly the stupidest theory I ever heard.

[worstblogever]

No, they just have the perception that reading morality plays gives them a better moral core.

It's like saying holy men during the Crusades on either side of the conflict had a better "moral code" because of their exposure to religious philosophy of right and wrong and having read scriptures from either religion.

Clearly, there were some messed up things happening.

[PretenderNX01]

I wish but I think we've all seen what happens when geeks get pissed of at someone who calls out a product for being sexist.

To Mets's point on Comic Cons, not sure that just being not-convicted of a crime makes you a better person. It just means no one caught you.
Plus you don't know how many have traffic violations, DUIs or possession in their background. Heck that applies to most actors in geek-related adaptions

And how many geeks illegally download? That is stealing.

[t hedge coke]

One of the great things in Otaku No Video are the graphs used to illustrate percentage of fans who agree to this or percentage of fans who believe that, mostly revolving around moral issues, and when it comes to stealing something involved in your fandom that wouldn't prevent or delay a release, for the first time, it goes to one hundred percent approval.

Geeks are weak-willed or self-justifying as any other group out there.

[Silvermoth]

Disagree. In some ways geeks can be just as cruel and twice as entitled as anyone else. Just look at the mess with gamergate etc

[Shawn Hopkins]

Geeks tend to associate themselves with higher intelligence and outsider status, which can lead to both arrogance and a lack of empathy. See also: Reddit.

[Kusanagi]

Hell no, some of the most racist, sexist, arrogant people I've ever had the displeasure of associating with have been geeks.

[Michael P]

Judging purely on my own observations, no more or less so than the overall population.