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Honest on Mondays: Honesty and the Temporal Distance between Decisions and Payoffs

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  • Ruffle, Bradley

    (Wilfrid Laurier University)

  • Tobol, Yossef

    (Jerusalem College of Technology (JTC))

Abstract

We show that temporally distancing the decision task from the payment of the reward increases honest behavior. Each of 427 Israeli soldiers fulfilling their mandatory military service rolled a six-sided die in private and reported the outcome to the unit's cadet coordinator. For every point reported, the soldier received an additional half-hour early release from the army base on Thursday afternoon. Soldiers who participated on Sunday (the first work day of the week) are significantly more honest than those who participated later in the week. We derive practical implications for eliciting honesty.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruffle, Bradley & Tobol, Yossef, 2013. "Honest on Mondays: Honesty and the Temporal Distance between Decisions and Payoffs," IZA Discussion Papers 7312, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7312
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Immediate rewards prompt dishonest behavior
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2013-05-13 19:46:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Bradley J. Ruffle & Yossef Tobol, 2017. "Clever enough to tell the truth," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(1), pages 130-155, March.
    2. Johannes Abeler & Daniele Nosenzo & Collin Raymond, 2019. "Preferences for Truth‐Telling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1115-1153, July.
    3. Marie Claire Villeval, 2019. "Comportements (non) éthiques et stratégies morales," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 70(6), pages 1021-1046.
    4. Bar-El, Ronen & Tobol, Yossef, 2017. "Honesty toward the holy day," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 13-17.
    5. Bar-El, Ronen & Tobol, Yossef, 2017. "Honesty toward the Holy Day," IZA Discussion Papers 10609, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Lohse, Tim & Qari, Salmai, 2021. "Gender differences in face-to-face deceptive behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 1-15.
    7. Sascha Behnk & Iván Barreda-Tarrazona & Aurora García-Gallego, 2017. "An experimental test of reporting systems for deception," Working Papers 2017/11, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    8. Hiromasa Takahashi & Junyi Shen, 2018. "The Effect of Anchoring on Dishonest Behavior," Discussion Paper Series DP2018-04, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    9. Arbel, Yuval & Bar-El, Ronen & Siniver, Erez & Tobol, Yossef, 2014. "Roll a die and tell a lie – What affects honesty?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 153-172.
    10. Bucciol, Alessandro & Cicognani, Simona & Montinari, Natalia, 2024. "It's time to cheat!," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    11. Bernd Irlenbusch & Marie Claire Villeval, 2015. "Behavioral ethics: how psychology influenced economics and how economics might inform psychology?," Post-Print halshs-01159696, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    experimental economics; honesty; temporal distance; soldiers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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