Dishonesty in Behavioral Economics

343 Pages·2019·6.014 MB·English

by  Alejandro Bucciol (editor)

Dishonesty in Behavioral Economics
Dishonesty in Behavioral
Economics
Edited by
Alessandro Bucciol
Natalia Montinari
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Dedication
To Brizio, who was born together
with this book.
Contributors
Numbers in paraentheses indicate the pages on which the authors’ contrbutions begin.
Julián Arango-Ochoa (319) Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia
Ofer H. Azar (267) Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel; Laboratory
of Economic Behavior of the Center of Psycho-Economic Research, Povolzhsky
Institute of Administration named after P.A. Stolypin—Branch of RANEPA, Saratov,
Russia
Michael Bar-Eli (267) Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba; The Academic
College at Wingate, Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel
Pietro Battiston (53) University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Alessandro Bucciol (3) Department of Economics, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
C. Bram Cadsby (31) University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
Jiarong Chua (319) University of Warwick
Simona Cicognani (81) Free University of Bozen, Bozen, Italy
Brian J. Compton (17) Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego,
CA, United States
Zhixin Dai (245) China Financial Policy Research Center, School of Finance, Renmin
University of China, Beijing, China; Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE, UMR5824, Ecully,
France
Beatriz Gil-Gómez de Liaño (163) Department of Social Psychology and Methodology,
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Fabio Galeotti (245) Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE, UMR5824, Ecully, France
Simona Gamba (53) University of Verona, Verona, Italy
Li Hao (193) Economist at Convoy, Seattle, WA, United States
Gail D. Heyman (17) Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego,
CA, United States
Daniel Houser (193) Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA, United States
Andrea Isoni (319) Business School, Coventry, United Kingdom; University of Cagliari,
Italy
Alanda Kariza (319) University of Warwick
Doron Kliger (111) Department of Economics, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
xiii
xiv Contributors
Julia Kolodko (319) Business School, Coventry, United Kingdom
Kang Lee (17) Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto,
ON, Canada
Raúl López-Pérez (143) Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP), Spanish National
Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
Valeria Maggian (183) Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy
Grzegorz Mardyla (213) Faculty of Economics, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan
Natalia Montinari (3) Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Nora Muñoz-Izquierdo (163) Accounting Department, CUNEF—Colegio Universitario
de Estudios Financieros, Madrid, Spain
Kazuki Ohara (213) Recruit Lifestyle Co., Ltd, Tokyo, Japan
Stefania Ottone (289) DEMS e CISEPS—University of Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy
David Pascual-Ezama (163) Accounting and Finance Department, Facultad de Ciencias
Económicas y Empresariales, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Ferruccio Ponzano (289) DIGSPES—University of Eastern Piedmont, Vercelli, Italy
Daniel Read (319) Business School, Coventry, United Kingdom
Francisco Daniel Rin-Sánchez (163) Department of Social Psychology and Methodology,
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Valentina Rotondi (53) Bocconi University, Milan, Italy
Shunichiro Sasaki (213) Faculty of Economics, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan
Smadar Siev (111) Ono Academic College, Faculty of Business Administration, Haifa,
Israel
Fei Song (31) Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
Eli Spiegelman (143) CEREN, EA 7477, Burgundy School of Business - Université
Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
Shristi Tiku (319) University of Warwick
Marie Claire Villeval (245) Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE, UMR5824, Ecully, France;
IZA, Bonn, Germany
Shoko Yamane (213) Faculty of Economics, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan
Xiaolan Yang (31) Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China
Shira Yosef (267) Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel
Li Zhao (17) Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou,
China
Preface
“One percent of people will always be honest and never steal […]
Another one percent will always be dishonest and always try to pick your lock
and steal your television. And the rest will be honest as long as the conditions are
right.”
Anonymous locksmith, reported in Dan Ariely, The Honest Truth
About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves
The study of dishonesty has gained growing attention in behavioral economics
in the last years. Dishonesty is a pervasive human behavior occurring in
virtually all contexts, and manifests itself as the disposition to lie, cheat, fraud,
or deceive. This behavior usually gives individuals a personal advantage at the
expenses of another party, and more in general, of the society.
This book serves two main purposes. First, it provides a rigorous and
comprehensive overview of the current research on dishonesty, collecting state-
of-the-art works on this topical field from a behavioral economics perspective
that focuses on the effects of psychological, social, and cognitive factors of
the decision-making process. Second, it compares empirical works conducted
with different methodologies of research, discussing comparative advantages
and limitations of each.
Our goal is to provide students, researchers, and policy-makers who want
to become familiar with the topic a tool to gain a good understanding of the
mechanisms behind dishonesty and of the conditions that can discourage or
favor dishonest behaviors as well as of the impact that different methodologies
have on the results obtained.
… After reading the book, we hope you will not find us dishonest in our
claim.
Alessandro and Natalia
xv

Chapter 1
Dishonesty in behavioral
economics: An overview
Alessandro Bucciol1, Natalia Montinari2
1 2
Department of Economics, University of Verona, Verona, Italy, Department of Economics,
University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Chapter outline
1. Introduction 3 4. Dishonesty in daily life 7
2. Dishonesty among children 5. Further topics on dishonesty
and young adults 4 in behavioral economics 9
3. Dishonesty, individual, and 6. Concluding remarks 11
social preferences 6 References 12
JEL Classification: D91, D63
1. Introduction
Dishonesty is a pervasive human behavior occurring virtually in all contexts, and
manifests itself as the disposition to lie, cheat, fraud, or deceive. This behavior
usually gives individuals a personal advantage at the expense of the society.
Over the last decade, researchers from various disciplines have investigated the
topic from theoretical as well as empirical (including experimental) point of
view. A recent comprehensive review can be found in Jacobsen et al. (2018).
However, much has yet to be learned about the reasons behind dishonesty, and
the characteristics of who is more prone to act dishonestly.
This book aims to provide a rigorous and comprehensive overview of
dishonesty, collecting state-of-the-art research on this topical field adopting a
behavioral economics perspective which focuses on the effects of psychological,
social, and cognitive factors of the decision-making process. In contrast to
other works dealing with the same or similar topics, this book highlights the
importance of the empirical research methodologies discussing how different
methods applied to similar research questions can lead to different results.
One key reason is that it is difficult to obtain reliable measures of dishonesty.
Dishonesty in Behavioral Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815857-9.00001-7
Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 3