Is dishonesty persistent?

Michèle Belot and Jeroen van de Ven ()

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2019, vol. 83, issue C

Abstract: We study if (dis)honest behavior is persistent. We investigate this by exposing participants to different incentives to lie over time. Some participants are first exposed to high incentives and then to lower incentives; for others the reverse. If (dis)honest behavior is persistent, the propensity to lie depends on past incentives. We find no evidence of persistence in honest or dishonest behavior. Exposing participants first to high incentives does not result in a lasting positive effect on dishonesty after the incentives are lowered away. Similarly, after correcting for a time trend, subjects still respond strongly to high incentives after facing low incentives.

Keywords: Lying; Dishonesty; Persistence; Habits; Incentives; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:83:y:2019:i:c:s2214804319300357

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2019.101464

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