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Lying for Others: The Impact of Agency on Misreporting

Author

Listed:
  • Georgia E. Buckle

    (University of Portsmouth)

  • Sascha Füllbrunn

    (Radboud University)

  • Wolfgang J. Luhan

    (University of Portsmouth)

Abstract

We extend the experimental design by Fischbacher and Föllmi-Heusi (2013) to examine lying behavior on behalf of others, eliminating all possible incentives apart from social preferences. We compare the prevalence of misreporting in situations where the monetary gain either goes to the decision-maker or to an anonymous other participant. Overall we observe lower levels of lying for others compared to for oneself, however, a significant number of participants were willing to lie to increase another participant’s payoff, with no economic incentive to do so. We find no partial lying for others but rather two extremes: either complete honesty or maximal lying.

Suggested Citation

  • Georgia E. Buckle & Sascha Füllbrunn & Wolfgang J. Luhan, 2020. "Lying for Others: The Impact of Agency on Misreporting," Working Papers in Economics & Finance 2020-12, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Economics and Finance Subject Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:pbs:ecofin:2020-12
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    Cited by:

    1. Matteo Ploner, 2022. "Lie for me: An experiment about delegation, efficiency, and morality," CEEL Working Papers 2202, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    2. Loessl, Victor von & Bühren, Christoph & Frank, Björn & Wetzel, Heike & Wiederhold, Elina, 2024. "Would you lie about your mother's birthday? A new online dishonesty experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    lying aversion; decision making for others; prosocial lying; experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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