Keeping them honest: Promises reduce cheating in adolescents

Abstract

People frequently engage in dishonest behavior at a cost to others, and it is therefore beneficial to study interventions promoting honest behavior. We implemented a novel intervention that gave participants a choice to promise to be truthful or not to promise. To measure cheating behavior, we developed a novel variant of the mind game—the dice‐box game—as well as a child‐friendly sender–receiver game. Across three studies with adolescents aged 10 to 14 years (N = 640) from schools in India, we found that promises systematically lowered cheating rates compared with no‐promise control conditions. Adolescents who sent truthful messages in the sender–receiver game cheated less in the dice‐box game and promises reduced cheating in both tasks (Study 1). Promises in the dice‐box game remained effective when negative externalities (Study 2) or incentives for competition (Study 3) were added. A joint analysis of data from all three studies revealed demographic variables that influenced cheating. Our findings confirm that promises have a strong, binding effect on behavior and can be an effective intervention to reduce cheating.

Young children’s understanding of justifications for breaking a promise

“…Developmental research has shown that young children already understand that commitments have implications for their own behaviour. From three years of age, children will keep their promise despite being tempted to play a fun game (Kanngiesser et al, 2017) and from five years of age, children will cheat less or tell the truth more frequently after promising to be honest (Heyman et al, 2015;Kanngiesser, Sunderarajan, & Woike, 2021;Lyon & Dorado, 2008;Quas, Stolzenberg, & Lyon, 2018;Talwar, Lee, Bala, & Lindsay, 2002). Moreover, starting at age three, children expect their partners to keep their commitments and, when those partners fail to honour their obligation, young children will protest (Kachel et al, 2017;Kanngiesser et al, 2017) or try to re-engage them (Gräfenhain et al, 2009).…”

Messaging about descriptive and injunctive norms can promote honesty in young children

“…It is possible that children's sensitivity to messaging about descriptive and injunctive norms can help to explain other manipulations that have been shown to impact honesty, such as eliciting promises (Evans & Lee, 2010; Heyman et al, 2015; Kanngiesser et al, 2021; Lyon & Dorado, 2008; Lyon et al, 2008; Talwar et al, 2002, 2004) and telling children moral stories (Lee et al, 2014; Talwar et al, 2016, 2017). For example, perhaps the promise manipulation is effective because a promise carries an obligation to keep one's word, which can be understood in terms of its implications for what should be done (Kanngiesser et al, 2017).…”

The transmission game: Testing behavioral interventions in a pandemic-like simulation

“…The survey was complemented by three incentivized economic games: the dictator game ( 62 ), a money-burning task ( 63 ), and a variant of the die-under-the-cup task ( 64 ). Participants further completed the six-item version of the ring measure of social value orientation ( 39 ) and four single-item measures tapping general risk preference ( 65 ), trust, time preference ( 38 ), and impatience ( 66 ).…”