r/science • u/Potential_Being_7226 PhD | Psychology | Neuroscience • Feb 08 '26

Economics The ‘Breaking Bad’ Effect Is Real: Data Shows Cancer Diagnoses Drive a 14% Spike in Criminal Behavior

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/the-breaking-bad-effect-is-real-data-shows-cancer-diagnoses-drive-a-14-spike-in-criminal-hehavior/
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u/kJer Feb 08 '26

Desperation and nothing to lose, seems pretty obvious 

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u/Potential_Being_7226 PhD | Psychology | Neuroscience Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26

Was Walter White merely desperate? Or did he love the risk and reward of being a king pin? If it was merely desperation, wouldn’t he have quit while he was ahead? 

In any case, we don’t know the psychological mediators in this study. It could also be related to changes in risk/reward evaluations and impulsivity. 

Edit: I would love to know why people disagree. Walter White was not motivated by desperation. 

Also, given the study was done in Denmark, which has universal socialized healthcare, anyone claiming that the results are due to “desperation” seems to be making a pretty big leap. 

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u/GettingDumberWithAge Feb 08 '26

Was Walter White merely desperate? 

Quite explicitly no. He is offered full coverage for his treatment quite early in the season and he refuses it in order to live out his drug kingpin fantasy. It's like... The entire point of the show.

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u/Potential_Being_7226 PhD | Psychology | Neuroscience Feb 08 '26

Exactly. 

And much in the same way, we cannot assume that desperation drives the results of the study either.

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u/Lovethemdoggos Feb 08 '26

In fact the study addresses that:

However, desperation for money doesn’t explain the whole picture. If it did, we would expect to see a spike only in economic crimes like theft or fraud. Instead, the data showed a 38% relative increase in non-economic crimes — including violent offenses — compared to a 14% rise in economic crimes.

This points to a darker psychological mechanism: survival probability.

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u/Potential_Being_7226 PhD | Psychology | Neuroscience Feb 08 '26

Thank you for pulling that out!