Measuring dishonest behavior: Hidden dimensions that matter

Gerlach, Philipp; Teodorescu, Kinneret

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101408

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…However, previous studies have found much stronger effects when employing paradigms with no or a similar amount of minimal interaction as in the current studies (Kocher et al, 2018;Weisel & Shalvi, 2015). Third, dishonesty rates differed strongly across the different tasks and populations (Gerlach & Teodorescu, 2022). It is essential to encourage dishonest behavior to be able to study it, which is why we employed private tasks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

“…Overall, we found that participants behaved more dishonestly when they could earn a bonus for themselves compared to another person from the study in Study 1, the mind shape task increased dishonesty significantly compared to the die roll task in Study 3 (but not in Study 2), and a one-shot task increased overall reports significantly compared to four trials in Studies 4 and 5 (cf. Gerlach & Teodorescu, 2022). We also explored the importance of different sociodemographic indicators (Supplementary Sections 15-17).…”

Section: Confirmatory Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigating the Impact of Social Commitment on Dishonest Behavior

Zickfeld¹,

Ścigała²,

Weiß³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Social commitment (i.e., feeling committed to other individuals or groups) influences our behavior in various ways. Recent studies suggest that social commitment can increase dishonest behavior, while feeling commitment to social norms might decrease it. However, recent meta-investigations highlight severe heterogeneity of these effects. Additionally, research is scarce about what happens if individuals feel committed to individuals and social norms at the same time. The current pre-registered project, investigated the influence of social commitment on dishonest behavior by sampling 6,026 participants across three countries (the UK, the US, and Mexico) and various methodologies. We found no evidence that social commitment to other individuals increased dishonesty (OR =1.05 [.95, 1.17]), and preliminary evidence suggesting that commitment to social norms might decrease dishonesty (OR =.81 [.73, .90]). In addition, commitment to social norms was less effective if participants were committed to a partner at the same time (OR =.93 [.83, 1.03]).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Section: Confirmatory Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Impact of Social Commitment on Dishonest Behavior

Zickfeld¹,

Ścigała²,

Weiß³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…COMMITTED DISHONESTY more dishonest behavior compared to online studies might be the fact that coordination or interaction could have stronger effects in real life than in online settings. Further, participants might be more suspicious in online settings with regard to the fact whether their decisions are private (Gerlach & Teodorescu, 2022). Surprisingly, we also observed increased dishonesty in instances in which the experimenter or other third parties were able to check the actual performance, in contrast to situations in which participants' responses were truly private or believed to be private.…”

Section: Commitment To Individuals or Groupsmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…A potential reason why lab studies ignited more dishonest behavior compared to online studies might be the fact that coordination or interaction could have stronger effects in real life than in online settings. Further, participants might be more suspicious in online settings with regard to the fact whether their decisions are private (Gerlach & Teodorescu, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, there is evidence that performing monitored decisions after an honesty oath increases the impact of the honesty oath on honest behavior (Schild et al, 2019). In fact, Gerlach and Teodorescu (2022) suggest that commitment to honesty norms such as signing an honesty oath might focus attention on possible observability of the dishonest act instead of internal moral standards. Overall, it seems that performing decisions in public with the potential of being checked should increase honest reporting—regardless of the target of commitment.…”

Section: Commitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Committed (dis)honesty: A systematic meta-analytic review of the divergent effects of social commitment to individuals or honesty oaths on dishonest behavior.

Zickfeld,

Karg,

Engen

et al. 2024

Psychological Bulletin

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People feel committed to other individuals, groups, organizations, or moral norms in many contexts of everyday life. Such social commitment can lead to positive outcomes, such as increased job satisfaction or relationship longevity; yet, there can also be detrimental effects to feeling committed. Recent high-profile cases of fraud or corruption in companies like Enron or Volkswagen are likely influenced by strong commitment to the organization or coworkers. Although social commitment might increase dishonest behavior, there is little systematic knowledge about when and how this may occur. In the present project, we reviewed 20,988 articles, focusing on studies that experimentally manipulated social commitment and measured dishonest behavior. We retained 445 effect sizes from 121 articles featuring a total of 91,683 participants across 33 countries. We found no evidence that social commitment increases or reduces dishonest behavior in general. Nonetheless, we did find evidence that the effect strongly depends on the target of the commitment. Feeling committed to other individuals or groups reduces honest behavior (g = −0.17 [−0.24, −0.11]), whereas feeling committed to honesty norms through honesty oaths or pledges increases honest behavior (g = 0.27 [0.19, 0.36]). The analysis identified several moderating variables and detected some degree of publication bias across effects. Our findings highlight the diverging effects of different forms of social commitment on dishonest behavior and suggest a combination of the different forms of commitment could be a possible means to combat corruption and dishonest behavior in the organizational context. Public Significance StatementThis meta-analysis reveals that social commitment can impact dishonest behavior in various ways. Feeling committed or interacting with other individuals showed an increase in dishonesty, whereas committing to an honesty norm (by signing an honesty oath, for example) showed an increase in honesty. These effects were small and subject to different situational moderations. We propose that a combination of both types of commitment, commitment to loyalty and commitment to honesty norms, might be important in achieving good teamwork while at the same time reducing dishonest behavior.

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