Further from the Truth: The Impact of In-Person, Online, and mTurk on Dishonest Behavior

David Dickinson and David McEvoy (mcevoydm@appstate.edu)

No 13686, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Recent policies require some interactions previously conducted in close social proximity (e.g., school, workplace) to take place remotely, which motivates our investigation of how in-person versus online environments impact honesty. We modify a well-known coin-flip task and examine the influence of going from the physical laboratory environment, to online with identifiable participants (same lab subject pool), to online with anonymous participants using mTurk. Surprisingly, while a simple move from in-lab to online (using the same subject pool) appears to increase "fake effort" – those who likely never flip the coin - it does not predict more dishonest behavior when there is a monetary incentive to cheat. The most socially distant and anonymous participants (mTurk) are more likely to be deemed cheaters in our analysis these individuals report coin flip outcomes consistent with cheating for monetary gain. Implications of our findings indicate the greatest risk of potentially costly dishonest behavior results when anonymity, not just social distance, is high.

Keywords: anonymity; cheating; behavioral economics; social distance; experiment; coin flip (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 86 pages
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-pay
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Published - revised version published as 'Further from the truth: The impact of moving from in-person to online settings on dishonest behavior' in: Journal of Experimental and Behavioral Economics , 2021, 90, 101649

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