The impact of a sense of belonging on truth-telling and the role of gender

Guy Barokas and Oded Ravid

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2025, vol. 118, issue C

Abstract: This study uses an online experiment to explore the effect of belongingness in promoting honesty and how this is affected by gender. Each participant in the treatment group was assigned to the subgroup with which they most closely identified, while participants in the control group were randomly assigned to the non-identified subgroups. Participants reported the outcomes of unmonitored die rolls, with honesty incentivized by collective bonuses. The results show that the treatment group experienced a stronger sense of belonging and reported more honestly than the control group, confirming the overall effect of belongingness on truthfulness. We also identified a correlation between the degree of belongingness and honesty across subgroups. A post hoc analysis of gender variations revealed that women demonstrated a stronger sense of belonging and a higher level of honesty. Notably, while the effect of belongingness on honesty was significant among women, it was not statistically significant for men. These findings highlight belongingness as a key factor in ethical behavior, particularly for women, with implications for policy design in many contexts.

Keywords: Belongingness; Truth-telling; Honesty; Gender differences; Online experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D63 D91 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:118:y:2025:i:c:s2214804325000941

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102430

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