Krylova, Yulia V.

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International Social Science Review
Volume 94 | Issue 1 Article 15
Book Review: Cheating, Corruption, and
Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty by Jan-
Willem van Prooijen & Paul A. M. van Lange, eds
Yulia V. Krylova
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Recommended Citation
Krylova, Yulia V. () "Book Review: Cheating, Corruption, and Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty by Jan-Willem van Prooijen &
Paul A. M. van Lange, eds," International Social Science Review: Vol. 94 : Iss. 1 , Article 15.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr/vol94/iss1/15
van Prooijen, Jan-Willem, and Paul A. M. van Lange, eds. Cheating, Corruption, 
and Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty. Cambridge: Cambridge University 
Press, 2016. xiv + 315 pages. Hardcover, $126.95. 
 
This volume is a state-of-the-art presentation of one of the most rapidly growing 
currents of research on the subject of dishonesty.  Cheating, Corruption, and 
Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty is the result of a project conducted by a 
multinational team of scholars from Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United 
Kingdom, and the United States.  The researchers’ diverse backgrounds allow them to 
develop a holistic framework to understand the phenomenon of dishonesty exploring its 
psychological, socioeconomic, religious, and cultural aspects.  Much of the credit for 
the organization of these cutting-edge essays goes to its editors from the VU University 
Amsterdam: Jan-Willem van Prooijen, Associate Professor in the Department of Social 
and Organizational Psychology, and Paul van Lange, Professor of Psychology.  
 
Dishonesty takes many forms. For analytical purposes, the scholars distinguish 
between three dominant strategies that people commonly use: cheating (bending or 
violating rules individually to receive unfair advantages for themselves or others), 
corruption (bending or violating rules in cooperation with other people to receive unfair 
advantages for themselves or others), and concealment (hiding or misrepresenting 
information).  This volume provides new insights into distinctions and connections 
between these strategies.  In fact, in their introductory essay, van Prooijen and van 
Lange indicate that “cheating, corruption, and concealment should be regarded as 
interrelated elements of dishonesty, and frequently people combine multiple strategies 
to reach their goals” (p. 3).  To illustrate this point, they give an example of tax evasion, 
which usually involves both cheating and concealment.  
 
The volume moves beyond a ‘mainstream’ economic approach.  As van Prooijen 
and van Lange state, “dishonesty is more complex than the assertion of  ‘Homo 
Economicus’  that people’s behaviour is motivated solely by the pursuit of material self-
interest and a radical calculation of costs and benefits in social exchanges” (p. 2).  
Instead, the researchers approach dishonest behaviour from a theoretical perspective 
that focuses on its psychological dynamics within given moral and ethical constraints.  
This focus allows for the identification of specific factors that play a critical role in 
motivating people to bend the established rules, such as self-justification, self-
deception, interpersonal influences, social pressures, situational contexts, and even 
unselfish motivations.  In this respect, this volume represents a new generation of 
literature on dishonesty that integrates results of interdisciplinary studies within 
experimental economics, behavioural ethics, and social psychology.  
 
Structurally, the volume is divided into four parts.  Following the introductory 
chapter, the first part of the volume explores motivations for dishonest behaviour, such 
as the prevalence of moral hypocrisy over moral integrity, the fabrication of moral 
1
Krylova: Book Review: Cheating, Corruption, and Concealment
Published by Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository,
credentials, and the availability of different deceptive bargaining strategies to reach 
various self-interested and even prosocial goals.  The second part of the book covers an 
extensive list of justifications of dishonesty.  They include the ability to generate 
multiple and diverse rationales for why dishonest behaviour is morally acceptable, self-
deception about the morality of such actions, and self-persuasion about generating 
benefits to other people with the aid of dishonesty.  The third part presents an analysis 
of the role of individual and interpersonal factors facilitating dishonesty, such as 
narcissism, creativity, socioeconomic class, and social power.  The final part of the 
volume is devoted to the search for new strategies to reduce the prevalence of 
dishonesty in society through the reliance on religious priming and activities, the 
modification of certain aspects of the physical space in which people function, the 
alteration of situational factors, and the use of different lie detection approaches.  The 
assemblage of these small mosaic pieces related to dishonesty allows the reader to see 
the big picture of this complicated psychological phenomenon and to trace intricate 
connections between its multiple facets. 
 
The authors of this volume present numerous interesting findings related to 
dishonesty, some of which are unconventional.  For example, in their study of the 
relationship between wealth and wrong-doing, Paul Piff, Daniel Stancato, and E.J. 
Horberg find that people belonging to upper socioeconomic classes are more likely to 
commit dishonesty.  Exploring the dark side of creativity, Lynne Vincent and Evan 
Polman provide strong evidence that creativity often gives moral licensing for engaging 
in unethical or bad behaviour.  Contrary to the conventional belief that power corrupts, 
Steven Blader and Andy Yap find that “dishonesty is a product of the complexity that 
underlies power holders’ justice judgements” (p. 223).  These and many other new 
findings about cheating, corruption, and concealment allow the authors of the volume to 
propose various recommendations and innovative techniques to encourage justice, 
honesty, and ethical decision-making in different spheres of people’s lives. 
  
Cheating, Corruption, and Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty will be of 
interest to academic experts who specialize in behavioral economics, sociology, and 
psychology.  The book will also be of great importance to those who are interested in 
decreasing and preventing dishonesty, such as corporate compliance officers and civil 
servants responsible for enhancing ethics and integrity in their organizations.  The 
volume clearly shows that without understanding the psychology of dishonesty, it is 
impossible to counteract this undesirable phenomenon. 
 
Yulia V. Krylova, Ph.D. 
Researcher – The Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center 
Schar School of Policy and Government 
George Mason University 
Arlington, Virginia 
2
International Social Science Review, Vol. 94, Iss. 1 [], Art. 15
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Book Review: Cheating, Corruption, and Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty by Jan-Willem van Prooijen & Paul A. M. van Lange, eds

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Book Review: Cheating, Corruption, and Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty by Jan-Willem van Prooijen & Paul A. M. van Lange, eds

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