Corruption Perceptions: It's All Emotions

There's a survey out by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy ranking countries in Asia from least to most corrupt.

"The Philippines has the distinction of being perceived in the worst light this year," Perc said after polling almost 1,500 expatriate business executives in 13 countries and territories across the region in January and February.

In a grading system with zero as the best possible score and 10 the worst, the Philippines got 9.40, down sharply from its grade of 7.80 last year. Indonesia was deemed Asia's most corrupt country in 2006. . . .

China and Vietnam bettered their scores, but Perc said the improved perception was because corruption was not being discussed openly in the Communist-ruled countries.

Note the last line. It implies countries with state-controlled media will be perceived as less corrupt, because the press won't reflect the true conditions. And there's a corollary -- countries with free-reigning presses may overstate the extent of corruption, since media are usually anti-authoritarian and tend to accent the negative.

But aren't businessmen smart enough to sift through what's true and what's glossed over? Should they even pay attention to corruption perceptions when their business is business?