Cheating in the Lab Predicts Fraud in the Field: An experiment in public transportations

Zhixin Dai, Fabio Galeotti and Marie Claire Villeval

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: We conduct an artefactual field experiment using a diversified sample of passengers of public transportations to study attitudes towards dishonesty. We find that the diversity of behavior in terms of dis/honesty in laboratory tasks and in the field correlate. Moreover, individuals who have just been fined in the field behave more honestly in the lab than the other fare-dodgers, except when context is introduced. Overall, we show that simple tests of dishonesty in the lab can predict moral firmness in life, although fraudsters who care about social image cheat less when behavior can be verified ex post by the experimenter.

Keywords: fraud; experiment; lies; justification; information; cheating; Dishonesty; fare-dodging; field experiment; external validity; public transportations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01348517v2
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (75)

Published in Management Science, 2018, 64 (3), pp. 1081-1100. ⟨10.1287/mnsc.2016.2616⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01348517v2/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Cheating in the Lab Predicts Fraud in the Field: An Experiment in Public Transportation (2018)
Working Paper: Cheating in the Lab Predicts Fraud in the Field: An Experiment in Public Transportations (2016)
Working Paper: Cheating in the Lab Predicts Fraud in the Field: An Experiment in Public Transportations (2016)
Working Paper: Cheating in the Lab Predicts Fraud in the Field An Experiment in Public Transportations (2016)
Working Paper: Cheating in the Lab Predicts Fraud in the Field: An Experiment in Public Transportations (2016)
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:hal:journl:halshs-01348517

DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2616

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().