Are 80% of us sheep 80% of the time?

Locked out, Manhattan, New York City

Alan Patrick, The Economics of Unethical Behaviour:

… by and large 80% of us are sheep 80% of the time.

Thus, as you can see, roughly 2/3rds of the time all consumer sheep can be fleeced all the time. In other words you can build a very sound business by fooling people, and the (probably more costly) approach of Being Good only impacts about 20% of the market.

See Alan’s post for a graphic that explains his thinking pretty clearly.

I’d like to believe it’s not true. I’d like to believe that in a business based on a multi-turn game (i.e. a business that is built to succeed and serve repeat customers for years) it’s not profitable in the long-term to regularly fleece people.

But let’s say Alan is right, which he usually is, over 80% of the time, by my estimation.

Why are 80% of us sheep?

Why are we sheep 80% of the time?

Why is fooling people cheaper than Being Good?

Why won’t an ethical edge pay?

Or, better yet, what would have to change to make “fooling people” an unsustainable and economically dominated strategy?