Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T16:15:49.518Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lying in two dimensions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Diogo Geraldes Open the ORCID record for Diogo Geraldes [Opens in a new window] ,
Franziska Heinicke Open the ORCID record for Franziska Heinicke [Opens in a new window]  and
Stephanie Rosenkranz Open the ORCID record for Stephanie Rosenkranz [Opens in a new window]
Diogo Geraldes*
Affiliation:
School of Economics and Geary Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Franziska Heinicke*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Stephanie Rosenkranz*
Affiliation:
Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
*
e-mail: diogogeraldes@gmail.com
f.heinicke@uni-mannheim.de
s.rosenkranz@uu.nl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The expanding literature on lying has exclusively considered lying behavior within a one-dimensional context. While this has been an important first step, many real-world contexts involve the possibility of simultaneously lying in more than one dimension (e.g., reporting one’s income and expenses in a tax declaration). We experimentally investigate individual lying behavior in one- and two-dimensional contexts to understand how the multi-dimensionality of a decision affects lying behavior. Our paper provides the first evidence regarding the pure effect of dimensionality on lying behavior. Using a two-dimensional die-roll task, we show that participants distribute lies unevenly across dimensions, which results in greater over-reporting of the lower-outcome die.

Keywords

LyingHonestyMulti-dimensionalLab experimentLab-in-the-field experiment

JEL classification

C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior C93: Field Experiments H26: Tax Evasion and Avoidance D82: Asymmetric and Private Information • Mechanism Design
Type
Original Paper
Information
Journal of the Economic Science Association , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , June 2023 , pp. 34 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Economic Science Association 2022.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abeler, J., Nosenzo, D., Raymond, C. (2019). Preferences for truth-telling. Econometrica, 87(4), 1115–1153. 10.3982/ECTA14673CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arellano, M., Bond, S. (1991). Some tests of specification for panel data: Monte Carlo evidence and an application to employment equations. The Review of Economic Studies, 58(2), 277–297. 10.2307/2297968CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barron, K. (2019). Lying to appear honest. Discussion Paper SP II 2019–307, WZB.Google Scholar
Bénabou, R., Tirole, J. (2004). Willpower and personal rules. Journal of Political Economy, 112(4), 848–886. 10.1086/421167CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanken, I., van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M. (2015). A meta-analytic review of moral licensing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(4), 540–558. 10.1177/0146167215572134CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bodner, R., Prelec, D. (2003). The diagnostic value of actions in a self-signaling model. The Psychology of Economic Decisions, 1, 105–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, D. L., Schonger, M., Wickens, C. (2016). oTree—An open-source platform for laboratory, online, and field experiments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 9, 88–97. 10.1016/j.jbef.2015.12.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cojoc, D., Stoian, A. (2014). Dishonesty and charitable behavior. Experimental Economics, 17(4), 717–732. 10.1007/s10683-014-9391-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cumming, G. (2009). Inference by eye: Reading the overlap of independent confidence intervals. Statistics in Medicine, 28(2), 205–220. 10.1002/sim.3471CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dolan, P., Galizzi, M. M. (2015). Like ripples on a pond: Behavioral spillovers and their implications for research and policy. Journal of Economic Psychology, 47(Supplement C), 1–16. 10.1016/j.joep.2014.12.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dufwenberg, M., Dufwenberg, M. (2018). Lies in disguise—A theoretical analysis of cheating. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 175, 248–264.Google Scholar
Effron, D. A., Monin, B. (2010). Letting people off the hook: When do good deeds excuse transgressions? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(12), 1618–1634. 10.1177/0146167210385922CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fischbacher, U., Föllmi-Heusi, F. (2013). Lies in disguise—An experimental study on cheating. Journal of the European Economic Association, 11(3), 525–547. 10.1111/jeea.12014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garbarino, E., Slonim, R., & Villeval, M. C. (2016). Loss aversion and lying behavior: Theory, estimation and empirical evidence. GATE Working Paper 1631.Google Scholar
Geraldes, D., Heinicke, F., Kim, D. G. (2021). Big and small lies. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 91 10.1016/j.socec.2021.101666CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerlach, P., Teodorescu, K., Hertwig, R. (2019). The truth about lies: A meta-analysis on dishonest behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 145(1),1. 10.1037/bul0000174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gneezy, U., & Imas, A. (2017). Lab in the field: Measuring preferences in the wild. In: Handbook of economic field experiments (Vol. 1, pp. 439–464). Elsevier, Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gneezy, A., Imas, A., Brown, A., Nelson, L. D., Norton, M. I. (2012). Paying to be nice: Consistency and costly prosocial behavior. Management Science, 58(1), 179–187. 10.1287/mnsc.1110.1437CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gneezy, U., Kajackaite, A., Sobel, J. (2018). Lying aversion and the size of the lie. American Economic Review, 108(2), 419–53. 10.1257/aer.20161553CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greiner, B. (2015). Subject pool recruitment procedures: organizing experiments with ORSEE. Journal of the Economic Science Association, 1(1), 114–125. 10.1007/s40881-015-0004-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobsen, C., Fosgaard, T. R., Pascual-Ezama, D. (2017). Why do we lie? A practical guide to the dishonesty literature. Journal of Economic Surveys, 32(2), 357–387. 10.1111/joes.12204CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalmetski, K., & Sliwka, D. (2017). Disguising lies—Image concerns and partial lying in cheating games. CESifo Working Paper Series 6347.Google Scholar
Mazar, N., Amir, O., Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(6), 633–644. 10.1509/jmkr.45.6.633CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merritt, A. C., Effron, D. A., Monin, B. (2010). Moral self-licensing: When being good frees us to be bad. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(5), 344–357. 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00263.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullen, E., Monin, B. (2016). Consistency versus licensing effects of past moral behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 363–385. 10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115120CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ploner, M., Regner, T. (2013). Self-image and moral balancing: An experimental analysis. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 93(Supplement C), 374–383. 10.1016/j.jebo.2013.03.030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roodman, D. (2009). How to do Xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata. The Stata Journal, 9(1), 86–136. 10.1177/1536867X0900900106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenbaum, S. M., Billinger, S., Stieglitz, N. (2014). Let’s be honest: A review of experimental evidence of honesty and truth-telling. Journal of Economic Psychology, 45, 181–196. 10.1016/j.joep.2014.10.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schindler, S., Pfattheicher, S. (2017). The frame of the game: Loss-framing increases dishonest behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 69, 172–177. 10.1016/j.jesp.2016.09.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, L. L., Mazar, N., Gino, F., Ariely, D., Bazerman, M. H. (2012). Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(38), 15197–15200. 10.1073/pnas.1209746109CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windmeijer, F. (2005). A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators. Journal of Econometrics, 126(1), 25–51. 10.1016/j.jeconom.2004.02.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Geraldes et. al. supplementary material

Geraldes et. al. supplementary material
Download Geraldes et. al. supplementary material(File)
File 414.2 KB