Cheating and the effect of promises in Indian and German children

Cheating is harmful to others and society at large. Promises have been shown to increase honesty in children, but their effectiveness has not been compared between different cultural contexts. In a study (2019) with 7- to 12-year-olds (N = 406, 48% female, middle-class), voluntary promises reduced cheating in Indian, but not in German children. Children in both contexts cheated, but cheating rates were lower in Germany than in India. In both contexts, cheating decreased with age in the (no-promise) control condition and was unaffected by age in the promise condition. These findings suggest that there may exist a threshold beyond which cheating cannot be further reduced by promises. This opens new research avenues on how children navigate honesty and promise norms

Children Sustain Cooperation in a Threshold Public-Goods Game Even When Seeing Others’ Outcomes

Many societal challenges are threshold dilemmas requiring people to cooperate to reach a threshold before group benefits can be reaped. Yet receiving feedback about others’ outcomes relative to one’s own (relative feedback) can undermine cooperation by focusing group members’ attention on outperforming each other. We investigated the impact of relative feedback compared to individual feedback (only seeing one’s own outcome) on cooperation in children from Germany and India (6- to 10-year-olds, N = 240). Using a threshold public-goods game with real water as a resource, we show that, although feedback had an effect, most groups sustained cooperation at high levels in both feedback conditions until the end of the game. Analyses of children’s communication (14,374 codable utterances) revealed more references to social comparisons and more verbal efforts to coordinate in the relative-feedback condition. Thresholds can mitigate the most adverse effects of social comparisons by focusing attention on a common goal

Keeping them honest: Promises reduce cheating in adolescents

People frequently engage in dishonest behavior at a cost to others, and it is therefore beneficial to study interventions promoting honest behavior. We implemented a novel intervention that gave participants a choice to promise to be truthful or not to promise. To measure cheating behavior, we developed a novel variant of the mind game—the dice‐box game—as well as a child‐friendly sender–receiver game. Across three studies with adolescents aged 10 to 14 years (N = 640) from schools in India, we found that promises systematically lowered cheating rates compared with no‐promise control conditions. Adolescents who sent truthful messages in the sender–receiver game cheated less in the dice‐box game and promises reduced cheating in both tasks (Study 1). Promises in the dice‐box game remained effective when negative externalities (Study 2) or incentives for competition (Study 3) were added. A joint analysis of data from all three studies revealed demographic variables that influenced cheating. Our findings confirm that promises have a strong, binding effect on behavior and can be an effective intervention to reduce cheating

Demographic and health characteristics of PURSE-HIS cohort stratified by sex and community type as defined by census designation (n = 6166).

<p>Demographic and health characteristics of PURSE-HIS cohort stratified by sex and community type as defined by census designation (n = 6166).</p

Census designation and land cover classification for mean carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) by sex.

<p>Bars represent the standard deviation. For census designation, mean cfPWV is shown for urban/semi-urban and rural areas. For land cover classification, mean cfPWV is shown for urban areas, areas with grass/trees, and areas with crops. For all census and land cover comparisons, mean cfPWV is significantly (p < 0.05) higher in men than women. Mean cfPWV is significantly higher for men and women in urban areas than in rural areas as designated by the census or in areas with crops as designated by land cover. Mean cfPWV is also significantly higher for men in areas with grass/trees than in areas with crops.</p

Association between distance in kilometers from urban center and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (m/s).

<p>Association between distance in kilometers from urban center and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (m/s).</p

Mean unadjusted carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (m/s) by 20 km distance intervals stratified by cardiovascular disease risk factors and sex.

<p>Lines with lighter symbols and triangle markers represent males and lines with darker symbols and square markers represent females. Solid lines represent groups that have higher levels of cardiovascular disease risk factors (e.g., older, smokers, or higher body mass index) while dashed lines represent groups that have lower levels of cardiovascular disease risk factors. HTN = hypertension; BMI = body mass index; LDL = low density lipoprotein. All tests for trends have p < 0.001 except those indicated by * (p < 0.05 but ≥ 0.001) or ** (p > 0.05).</p

PURSE-HIS participants, distance categories, and land cover type.

<p>Participant locations are shown as blue dots, the Chennai city center is shown as a green star, the Chennai boundary is shown with a solid black line, and distance from the Chennai city center is noted with dashed lines at 20 km, 40 km, 60 km, and 80 km from the city center.</p