Lying in Two Dimensions and Moral Spillovers

The expanding literature on lying has exclusively considered lying behavior within a one-dimensional context. While this has been an important first step, many real-world contexts involve the possibility of simultaneously lying in more than one dimension (e.g., reporting one’s income and expenses in a tax declaration). In this paper, we experimentally investigate individual lying behavior in both one- and two-dimensional contexts to understand whether the multi-dimensionality of a decision affects lying behavior. In the one-dimensional treatment, participants are asked to roll two dice in one hand and to report the sum of both dice. In the two-dimensional treatment, participants are asked to roll two dice at the same time, but one in each hand, and to report the two dice separately. Our paper provides the first evidence regarding lying behavior in a multi-dimensional context. Using a two-dimensional die-roll task, we show that participants lie partially between dimensions, which results in greater overreporting of the lower outcome die. These findings suggest a thought-provoking policy to tackle the infamous societal challenge of tax fraud: Tax report checks should focus on the item(s) for which a taxpayer profile hints at higher self-benefits in case of misreporting

Syntheses and Molecular Structures of Liquid Pyrophoric Hydridosilanes

Trisilane, isotetrasilane, neopentasilane, and cyclohexasilane have been prepared in gram scale. In-situ cryo crystallization of these pyrophoric liquids in sealed capillaries on the diffractometer allows access to the single crystal structures of these compounds. Structural parameters are discussed and compared to gas-phase electron diffraction structures from literature and with the results from quantum chemical calculations. Significantly higher packing indices are found for the silanes compared to the corresponding alkanes. Radiation with ultraviolet light (365 nm) and parallel ESR (EPR) measurement shows that cyclohexasilane is easily split into radicals, which subsequently leads to the formation of branched and chain-like oligomers. The other compounds form no radicals under these conditions. NMR spectra of all four compounds have been recorded. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

Lying in two dimensions

The expanding literature on lying has exclusively considered lying behavior within a one-dimensional context. While this has been an important first step, many real-world contexts involve the possibility of simultaneously lying in more than one dimension (e.g., reporting one’s income and expenses in a tax declaration). We experimentally investigate individual lying behavior in one- and two-dimensional contexts to understand how the multi-dimensionality of a decision affects lying behavior. Our paper provides the first evidence regarding the pure effect of dimensionality on lying behavior. Using a two-dimensional die-roll task, we show that participants distribute lies unevenly across dimensions, which results in greater over-reporting of the lower-outcome die

The effect of pledges on the distribution of lying behavior: An online experiment

Reminding people to behave honestly or asking them to actively commit to honest behavior is an easily implementable intervention to reduce dishonesty. Earlier research has shown that such truth pledges affect lying behavior on a group level. In this study we are analyzing how a truth pledge changes the distribution of lying types which have been established in the literature, i.e. truth tellers, partial liars and extreme liars, to better understand whether truth pledges can affect the decision to lie or merely the extent of lies. For this purpose, we conduct a 2 × 2 experiment with 484 participants in which we apply a truth pledge in a gain and a loss frame. We introduce a novel “Even-Odd task” for online lying experiments, which is based on the well-established coin-toss design. The Even-Odd task takes into account that unbiased, physical randomization devices are not always available in online settings, which can be a problem for truth-tellers if they are bad mental randomizers. We therefore ask participants to think of privately known numbers (house numbers, phone numbers) and then determine randomly whether even or uneven numbers result in the higher payment. We find that the truth pledge significantly reduces lying but also that this effect is strongest for extreme liars. The uneven shift in the distribution of liars suggests that truth pledges are effective in decreasing the size of lies but not the number of lies told. This result is robust for both frames

Lying in Two Dimensions

The expanding literature on lying has exclusively considered lying behavior within a one-dimensional context. While this has been an important first step, many real-world contexts involve the possibility of simultaneously lying in more than one dimension (e.g., reporting one's income and expenses in a tax declaration). We experimentally investigate individual lying behavior in one- and two-dimensional contexts to understand how the multi-dimensionality of a decision affects lying behavior. Our paper provides the first evidence regarding the pure effect of dimensionality on lying behavior. Using a two-dimensional die-roll task, we show that participants distribute lies unevenly across dimensions, which results in greater over-reporting of the lower-outcome die

Lying in Two Dimensions

The expanding literature on lying has exclusively considered lying behavior within a one-dimensional context. While this has been an important first step, many real-world contexts involve the possibility of simultaneously lying in more than one dimension (e.g., reporting one’s income and expenses in a tax declaration). In this paper, we experimentally investigate individual lying behavior in both one- and two-dimensional contexts to understand whether the multi-dimensionality of a decision affects lying behavior. In the one-dimensional treatment, participants are asked to roll two dice in one hand and to report the sum of both dice. In the two-dimensional treatment, participants are asked to roll two dice at the same time, but one in each hand, and to report the two dice separately. Our paper provides the first evidence regarding lying behavior in a multi-dimensional context. Using a two-dimensional die-roll task, we show that participants lie partially between dimensions, i.e., they distribute lying unevenly across dimensions, which results in greater over-reporting of the lower outcome die. These findings suggest a pertinent policy to tackle the infamous societal challenge of tax fraud: Tax report checks should focus on the item(s) for which a taxpayer profile hints at higher self-benefits in case of misreporting

Incentivized choice in large-scale voting experiments

Survey experiments that investigate how voting procedures affect voting behavior and election outcomes use hypothetical questions and non-representative samples. We present here the results of a novel survey experiment that addresses both concerns. First, the winning party in our experiment receives a donation to its campaign funds inducing real consequences for voting. Second, we run an online experiment with a Dutch national representative sample (N = 1240). Our results validate previous findings using a representative sample, in particular that approval voting leads to a higher concentration in votes for smaller parties and strengthens centrist parties in comparison to plurality voting. Importantly, our results suggest that voting behavior is not affected by voting incentives and can be equally reliably elicited with hypothetical questions

Pesticide residue survey of pollen loads collected by honeybees (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) in daily intervals at three agricultural sites in South Germany

<div><p>In agricultural landscapes honeybees and other pollinators are exposed to pesticides, often surveyed by residue analysis of bee bread. However, bee bread is a mixture of pollen pellets of different plants collected over a longer time period. Therefore, pesticide content in the hive varies with plant species and time of pollen collection. Hence, the analysis of bee bread is an approximate approach to gain information on detailed pesticide exposure during the agronomic active season. As high-resolution data is missing, we carried out a pesticide residue survey over five years (2012–2016) of daily collected pollen pellets at three agricultural distinct sites in southern Germany. 281 single day pollen samples were selected and subjected to a multi-pesticide residue analysis. Pesticide contaminations of pollen differed between the sites. Intensive pesticide exposure can be seen by high pesticide concentrations as well as a high amount of different pesticides detected. During the five years of observation 73 different pesticides were found, of which 84% are characterized as non-harmful to honeybees. To estimate pesticide risks for honeybees, the pollen hazard quotient (PHQ) was calculated. Even though pesticides were detected in sublethal concentrations, we found substances not supposed to be exposed to honey bees, indicating the necessity for further improvement of seed treatments and increasing awareness of flowering shrubs, field margins and pesticide drift. Additionally, an in-depth analysis of nine pollen samples, divided into sub-fractions dominated by single plant species, revealed even higher concentrations in single crops for some pesticides. We give precise residue data of 1,657 single pesticide detections, which should be used for realistic laboratory and field tests.</p></div

Summary of 73 pesticides detected in corbicular pollen loads of honeybees at three distinct agricultural production sites in South Germany during 2012–2016.

<p>Summary of 73 pesticides detected in corbicular pollen loads of honeybees at three distinct agricultural production sites in South Germany during 2012–2016.</p

Comparison of the concentrations of the same pesticides detected in the composite sample of 03.05.2012 of “fruit” site and in the sub-fraction <i>Brassicae</i> sp. of the same sample.

<p>Comparison of the concentrations of the same pesticides detected in the composite sample of 03.05.2012 of “fruit” site and in the sub-fraction <i>Brassicae</i> sp. of the same sample.</p