Size matters - when it comes to lies

Gerald Eisenkopf, Ruslan Gurtoviy () and Verena Utikal ()

No 20110517, IAAEG Discussion Papers until 2011 from Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU)

Abstract: A small lie appears trivial but it obviously violates moral commandments. We analyze whether the preference for others’ truth telling is absolute or depends on the size of a lie. In a laboratory experiment we compare punishment for different sizes of lies controlling for the resulting economic harm. We find that people are sensitive to the size of a lie and that this behavioral pattern is driven by honest people. People who lie themselves punish softly in any context.

Keywords: Lying; norm violation; punishment; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2011-05-17
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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http://www.iaaeg.de/images/DiscussionPaper/2011_02.pdf Initial version, 2011 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Size Matters - When it Comes to Lies (2011)
Working Paper: Size matters - when it comes to lies (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iaa:wpaper:20110517

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