Unethical Behavior and Group Identity in Contests

Julien Benistant and Marie Claire Villeval

No 1725, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: Using a real-effort experiment, we study whether group identity affects unethical behavior in a contest game. We vary whether minimal group identity is induced or not, whether individuals have to report their own outcome or the outcome of their competitor, and whether pairs of competitors share the same group identity or not. We show that individuals misreport in the same proportion and to the same extent by inflating their outcome or by decreasing their opponent’s outcome, except when any possible scrutiny by the experimenter is removed. Regardless of the possibility of scrutiny by the experimenter, misreporting is affected neither by the competitor’s group identity nor by the individual’s beliefs about others’ misreporting behavior. This suggests that in competitive settings, unethical behavior is mainly driven by an unconditional desire to win.

Keywords: Lying; sabotage; group identity; competition; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D63 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cdm and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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ftp://ftp.gate.cnrs.fr/RePEc/2017/1725.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Unethical behavior and group identity in contests (2019)
Working Paper: Unethical Behavior and Group Identity in Contests (2019)
Working Paper: Unethical Behavior and Group Identity in Contests (2019)
Working Paper: Unethical Behavior and Group Identity in Contests (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gat:wpaper:1725

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