I experimentally investigate the hypothesis that many people avoid lying even in a situation where doing so would result in a Pareto improvement. Replicating (Erat and Gneezy, Management Science 58, 723-733, 2012), I find that a significant fraction of subjects tell the truth in a sender-receiver game where both subjects earn a higher payoff when the partner makes an incorrect guess regarding the roll of a die. However, a non-incentivized questionnaire indicates that the vast majority of these subjects expected their partner not to follow their message. I conduct two new experiments explicitly designed to test for a 'pure' aversion to lying, and find no evidence for the existence of such a motivation. I discuss the implications of the findings for moral behavior and rule following more generally.
机构:
Boston Childrens Hosp, Dept Lab Med, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115 USA
Harvard Med Sch, Boston, MA USABoston Childrens Hosp, Dept Lab Med, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115 USA