People imitate others' dishonesty but do not intentionally search information about it

Abstract

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Conspiracy Believers Act More Dishonestly and Overestimate Others’ Dishonesty

“…Consistent with this theoretical framework, our data reveal a correlation between personal dishonesty and the anticipation of dishonesty in others, with correlation coefficients ranging from .317 to .414. This finding is particularly troubling given that individuals may be influenced by the perceived descriptive norm of highly prevalent dishonesty, yet do not search for information regarding whether this perceived descriptive norm is accurate (Leib, 2023).…”

Ignorance by choice: A meta-analytic review of the underlying motives of willful ignorance and its consequences.

“…Methodologically, we find asking participants to pay for the information (vs. not) does not moderate the difference in the level of altruistic behavior observed between treatments. Theoretically, costly information should deter participants from obtaining information (Leib, 2023; Saccardo & Serra-Garcia, 2020; Xiao & Bicchieri, 2011). Moreover, evidence from individual studies shows even small barriers to willful ignorance, such as the need to overcome a default setting, have strong effects on information seeking (Grossman, 2014).…”

“…Other studies have implemented a symbolic cost for information to mimic real-life situations in which information is costly (e.g., Momsen & Ohndorf, 2019;Momsen & Ohndorf, 2020a;Toribio-Flo ´rez et al, 2023). Such costs should make information less attractive (e.g., Leib, 2023;Serra-Garcia & Szech, 2019) and provide participants with an additional justification to remain ignorant and act selfishly. Therefore, we expect costly information to reduce altruistic choices in the hidden information treatment and increase the gap in altruistic choices between the full and hidden information treatments.…”