TY - JOUR
T1 - Keeping them honest: Promises reduce cheating in adolescents
AU - Kanngiesser, Patricia
AU - Sunderarajan, Jahnavi
AU - Woike, Jan K.
PY - 2021/4/1
Y1 - 2021/4/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/context/psy-research/article/1367/viewcontent/KSW_Keeping_them_honest__Promises_reduce_cheating_in_adolescents_JBDM.pdf
U2 - 10.1002/bdm.2203
DO - 10.1002/bdm.2203
M3 - Article
SN - 0894-3257
VL - 34
SP - 183
EP - 198
JO - Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
JF - Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
IS - 2
ER -