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Dishonesty and charitable behavior

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  • Doru Cojoc
  • Adrian Stoian

Abstract

We examine in the laboratory how having the opportunity to donate to a charity in the future affects the likelihood of engaging in dishonest behavior in the present. We also examine how charitable donations are affected by past ethical choices. First, subjects self-report their performance on a task, which provides them with an opportunity for undetected cheating. In the second stage they can donate some of the money earned in the first stage to a charity. Only subjects in the treatment group know about the opportunity to donate in the second stage. We find that more subjects cheat if they know they can donate some of the money to charity. We also find that subjects in treatment end up donating less to charity and that both honest and dishonest subjects donate less in treatment. We propose a new hypothesis that explains these results: past violations of social norms numb one’s conscience, leading to more antisocial behavior. Copyright Economic Science Association 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Doru Cojoc & Adrian Stoian, 2014. "Dishonesty and charitable behavior," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 17(4), pages 717-732, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:17:y:2014:i:4:p:717-732
    DOI: 10.1007/s10683-014-9391-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    6. Geraldes, Diogo & Heinicke, Franziska & Kim, Duk Gyoo, 2021. "Big and small lies," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Rahwan, Zoe & Hauser, Oliver P. & Kochanowska, Ewa & Fasolo, Barbara, 2018. "High stakes: A little more cheating, a lot less charity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 276-295.
    8. Diogo Geraldes & Franziska Heinicke & Stephanie Rosenkranz, 2023. "Lying in two dimensions," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 9(1), pages 34-50, June.
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    11. Claire Mouminoux, 2023. "Can misfortune lead to dishonesty?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 35(3), pages 293-310, August.
    12. Jeannette Brosig-Koch & Thomas Riechmann & Joachim Weimann, 2017. "The dynamics of behavior in modified dictator games," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, April.
    13. Akın, Zafer, 2019. "Dishonesty, social information, and sorting," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 199-210.
    14. Subhasish M. Chowdhury & Chulyoung Kim & Sang‐Hyun Kim, 2021. "Pre‐planning and its effects on repeated dishonest behavior: An experiment," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(2), pages 143-153, April.
    15. Banerjee, Ritwik & Baul, Tushi & Rosenblat, Tanya, 2015. "On self selection of the corrupt into the public sector," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 43-46.
    16. Andreas Lange & Claudia Schwirplies, 2021. "Bargaining With Charitable Promises: True Preferences and Strategic Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 9129, CESifo.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dishonesty; Charity; Donations; Identity; Guilt; D03; D63; D64; L31;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

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