People less likely to lie at home than office: study
Despite a potential maximum pay-off of 20 euros, the reports they received from the respondents reflected the likely distribution of a fair coin. This is based on the premise that the coin would have landed tails up around 50 per cent of the time.
All those taking part in the experiments answered questions about their gender, age, views on dishonesty and their religious background. The study suggested, however, that personal attributes play no part here as the overall level of honesty demonstrated in both experiments was high.
"The fact that the financial incentive to lie was outweighed by the perceived cost of lying shows just how honest most people are when they are in their own homes," Dr Johannes Abeler, from the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.
"One theory is that being honest is at the very core of how we want to perceive ourselves and is very important to our sense of self identity. Why it is so important? It may be to do with the social norms we have been given about what is right and wrong from the moment we could walk and talk," Abeler said.
Be the first to comment.
