Journal of the European Economic Association· 2013Q1
LIES IN DISGUISE-AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON CHEATING
- 1,277citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
A novel experimental design reveals that 20% of inexperienced subjects lie to the fullest extent possible when incentivized to cheat, while 39% remain fully honest, with a significant portion exhibiting partial dishonesty.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Developed a novel experimental design to measure honesty and lying with private die rolls and payoff incentives.
- The design prevents individual detection of cheating, reducing demand effects.
- 20% of inexperienced subjects lied to the maximum possible extent.
- 39% of subjects were fully honest.
- A substantial portion of subjects engaged in partial lying, not maximizing their payoff.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
We present a novel experimental design to measure honesty and lying. Participants receive a die which they roll privately. Since their payoff depends on the reported roll of the die, the subjects have an incentive to be dishonest and report higher numbers to get a higher payoff. This design has three advantages. First, cheating cannot be detected on the individual level, which reduces potential demand effects. Second, the method is very easy to implement. Third, the underlying true distribution of the outcome under full honesty is known, and hence it is possible to test different theoretical predictions. We find that about 20% of inexperienced subjects lie to the fullest extent possible while 39% of subjects are fully honest. In addition, a high share of subjects consists of partial liars; these subjects lie, but do not report the payoff-maximizing draw. We discuss different motives that explain the observed behavioral pattern.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of the European Economic Association, 2013 · DOI ↗
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