The aversion to lying

Tobias Lundquist, Tore Ellingsen, Erik Gribbe and Magnus Johannesson

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2009, vol. 70, issue 1-2, 81-92

Abstract: We experimentally investigate the effect of cheap talk in a bargaining game with one-sided asymmetric information. A seller has private information about her skill and is provided an opportunity to communicate this information to a buyer through a written message. Four different treatments are compared: one without communication, one with free-form communication, and two treatments with pre-specified communication in the form of promises of varying strength. Our results suggest that individuals have an aversion towards lying about private information and that the aversion to lying increases with the size of the lie and the strength of the promise. Freely formulated messages lead to the fewest lies and the most efficient outcomes.

Keywords: Deception; Communication; Lies; Promises; Experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (248)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167-2681(09)00052-3
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: The Aversion to Lying (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:70:y:2009:i:1-2:p:81-92

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().