These findings don't show that unethical behavior is somehow ingrained in people of higher status, Piff says.

CNN: Are rich people more unethical?

"We hadn't seen something as unethical in a sports competition before, " he said.

BBC: Flavio Briatore

The license plate alone, which can help with courthouse parking, is not intrinsically unethical and doesn't necessarily create an appearance of impropriety, though judges who invoke their judicial status when pulled over by police are misbehaving, the report said.

WSJ: NY commission says judicial license plates are OK

Those problems are another reason why cloning babies would be hugely unethical, but they don't necessarily make it impossible.

CNN: Human stem cell cloning: 'Holy Grail' or techno-fantasy?

Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, one of the study authors and director of the department of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, says it's unethical for a doctor to suggest a medication that hasn't been proven to work.

CNN: Is your doctor prescribing a placebo?