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Dishonest behavior: Sin big or go home

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  • Aimone, Jason A.
  • Ward, Brittany
  • West, James E.

Abstract

Economic agents face many different types of economic incentives when making financial and moral decisions. We provide experimental data from a population that uniquely responds to incentives to lie compared to previously studied populations. We conduct a standard 6-sided die rolling lying study within a population that believes that God has knowledge of all their actions. Within this population, we find that those who attend church frequently appear to refrain from lying while those who attend less frequently do lie, but without any attempt to disguise their lies as seen in more secular populations. Our results complement recent theoretical work on lying.

Suggested Citation

  • Aimone, Jason A. & Ward, Brittany & West, James E., 2020. "Dishonest behavior: Sin big or go home," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:186:y:2020:i:c:s016517651930391x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2019.108779
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Utikal, Verena & Fischbacher, Urs, 2013. "Disadvantageous lies in individual decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 108-111.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Jacquemet & Alexander G James & Stéphane Luchini & James J Murphy & Jason F Shogren, 2021. "Do truth-telling oaths improve honesty in crowd-working?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(1), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Hiller, Maximilian & Leisen, Bernd Josef & Mertins, Vanessa, 2024. "Pro-social mission and honesty – an artefactual field experiment with fundraising professionals," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    3. Irlenbusch, Bernd & Mussweiler, Thomas & Saxler, David J. & Shalvi, Shaul & Weiss, Alexa, 2020. "Similarity increases collaborative cheating," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 148-173.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lying; Experiment; Religiosity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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