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Female attractiveness engenders honesty among men but dishonesty among women

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  • Shtudiner, Zeev
  • Siniver, Erez
  • Tobol, Yossef
  • Yaniv, Gideon

Abstract

We investigated the impact of one person's attractiveness on the moral behavior exhibited by others. In our experiment, subjects were invited to perform an inverse version of the die-under-the-cup (DUTC) task that incentivized underreporting of the actual die outcome. Participants provided self-reports after being presented with a facial photograph of a female. Men tended to behave more honestly when they perceived an image of a beautiful female face. Strikingly, women exhibited the opposite pattern of behavior, and experienced a beauty penalty toward attractive women. Individuals tended to act more dishonestly when presented with a highly attractive facial image than when presented with a less attractive image. Women's greater dishonesty in the presence of an attractive female face can thus be explained by the negative emotional priming of female jealousy and envy, which is related to social comparison theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Shtudiner, Zeev & Siniver, Erez & Tobol, Yossef & Yaniv, Gideon, 2024. "Female attractiveness engenders honesty among men but dishonesty among women," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 592-598.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:218:y:2024:i:c:p:592-598
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.01.005
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender; Beauty; Dishonesty; Experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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