5 research outputs found
Self-reported ethical risk taking tendencies predict actual dishonesty
Are people honest about the extent to which they engage in unethical behaviors? We report an experiment examining the relation between self-reported risky unethical tendencies and actual dishonest behavior. Participants’ self-reported risk taking tendencies were assessed using the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (DOSPERT) questionnaire, while actual self-serving dishonesty was assessed using a private coin tossing task. In this task, participants predicted the outcome of coin tosses, held the predictions in mind, and reported whether their predictions were correct. Thus, the task allowed participants to lie about whether their predictions were correct. We manipulated whether reporting higher correct scores increased (vs. not) participants monetary payoff. Results revealed a positive relation between self-reported unethical risky tendencies and actual dishonesty. The effect was limited to the condition in which dishonesty was self-serving. Our results suggest liars are aware of their dishonest tendencies and are potentially not ashamed of them
Self-reported ethical risk taking tendencies predict actual dishonesty
Are people
honest about the extent to which they engage in unethical behaviors? We report
an experiment examining the relation between self-reported risky unethical
tendencies and actual dishonest behavior. Participants' self-reported risk
taking tendencies were assessed using the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (DOSPERT)
questionnaire, while actual self-serving dishonesty was assessed using a
private coin tossing task. In this task, participants predicted the outcome of
coin tosses, held the predictions in mind, and reported whether their
predictions were correct. Thus, the task allowed participants to lie about
whether their predictions were correct. We manipulated whether reporting higher
correct scores increased (vs. not) participants monetary payoff. Results
revealed a positive relation between self-reported unethical risky tendencies
and actual dishonesty. The effect was limited to the condition in which
dishonesty was self-serving. Our results suggest liars are aware of their
dishonest tendencies and are potentially not ashamed of them. %
change
Loss Aversion and lying behavior: Theory, estimation and empirical evidence
We theoretically show that loss-averse agents are more likely to lie to avoid receiving a low payoff after a random draw, the lower the ex-ante probability of this bad outcome. The ex-ante expected payoff increases as the bad outcome becomes less likely, and hence the greater is the loss avoided by lying. We demonstrate robust support for this theory by reanalyzing the results from the extant literature and with two new experiments that vary the outcome probabilities and are run doubleanonymous to remove reputation effects. To measure lying, we develop an empirical method that estimates the full distribution of dishonest