In an experiment, each volunteer was allowed to choose between an easy task and a hard task and was told that another volunteer would do the other task  Each volunteer could also choose to have a computer assign the two tasks randomly  Most volunteers chose the easy task for themselves and under questioning later said they had acted fairly  But when the scenario was described to another group of volunteers, almost all said choosing the easy task would be unfair
This shows that most people apply weaker moral standards to themselves than to others
At least some volunteers who said they had acted fairly in choosing the easy task would have said that it was unfair for someone else to do so.