Who cheats more?
This is a short video from a talk I gave on June 7th at the Booksmith in SF.
The question here, is who cheats more and who cheats less….
Before you watch the video, think about a country that you have family or social links to (not the US) and ask yourself if people in that country cheat more or less than Americans.
A) People in that other country cheat more than Americans
B) Americans cheat more than the people in that other country
Next, try to predict if you think that bankers cheat more than politicians or if politicians cheat more than bankers.
C) Bankers cheat more than politicians
D) Politicians cheat more than bankers
Now if you don’t mind post your 2 answers to Twitter together with the name of the country that you have selected. Please use my username (@danariely), and I will collect the responses from Twitter.
Now, you can watch the video and get the answers
The Upside of Irrationality, explores some positive and some negative ways that irrationality plays out in our lives.
I like the Horton stuffed animal peering over your left shoulder.
Also appreciated the Canada comment.
Loved the video.
I will be working on academic integrity violations at a US institution and it has been a long held perception and statistical reality that International students violate the academic student code (plagiarism, etc.) more than American students. This video tidbit makes me think there is something deeper at play, beyond just an adjustment to the system. Any thoughts, could it be the perception of what defines cheating?
Interesting video and experiment, but it has limits in what it proves. While it shows how the various groups value and practice honesty in the setting you constructed, I don’t think that you can naturally extend that to imply for example that bankers cheat more while banking than politicians cheat politicking (and no I am neither a banker nor a politician). It is entirely possible that the different cultures (banking, politicians, and the nationalities you tested) treat the classroom like setting differently with regard to the acceptability of cheating. If for example, the culture in Israeli held the classroom in the highest regard where honesty is more important than anywhere else and American’s thought that it was unimportant, than those two groups getting the same score in your test say significantly different things about the cultures. <>
I like your observation about NBA players. But maybe I see it from the other side. I don’t think that the point is that decisive players increase the level of their perfomances in the last 5 minutes, but actually that it does not decrease, as it happens to other people. They maybe can keep their mindset as if it were a normal game and keep shooting and trying, while the other “normal” players effectively feel the pressure and stop playing as if it were a normal game. Maybe this is the point regarding bankers, the good ones are not the ones that “thrive” in the chaotic moments, but the ones that keep doing their job as always, not trying to hide or show off.
I wonder if there would be any difference in cheating, if an additional control group would be given a sheet of paper with the results:(that is:given the chance, the majority of people cheated by about 50%) before they solved the problems. I wonder if “Everybody else is doing it” feeling increases the probability of being dishonest or the level of dishonesty.
This was a comment about the original cheating experiment though, not the cross cultural one.
While we appreciate the headline value of “dishonesty” isn’t an equally interesting question the overwhelming occurrence of “good enough,” “honest” interactions?
We are looking at Robert Triver’s fascinating work on deception as a dominant social strategy down to the level of the gene. He really is brilliant.
So bankers cheat more than politicians but how do they do compared to the population at large? Did I miss that?
Wow I was convinced that politicians cheated more than bankers given the flawed that really shocked me when he said it was a 2:1 ratio. With the country’s although I felt they were similar. Predictably Irrational is awesome too I love seeing why people do things.
flawed reputation* oops
Dan,
You didn’t mention whether Canadians actually cheat less or if we just think we cheat less
Fascinating stuff- but you need to test “cross-culture cheating”. Like: do bankers cheat polticians more readily than they cheat other bankers. Just intuitively, I would guess that cheating members of one’s own group is frowned upon, while cheating outsiders is glorified (tourist and taxi drivers…)
Interesting video, somewhat in the same vein as the TED talk you gave and the cheating portion of Predictably Irrational. The politicians vs. bankers cheating test particularly intrigued me, specifically in wondering if their approach towards cheating the test was the same.
What I am concerned with is the following: If the banker’s familiarity with the idea of appraising something worth X amount at a higher value Y amount to profit from the difference will cause him or her be more inclined to cheat on a test of this sort? To clarify – a banker knows a commodity would be overvalued at the price he demands, yet when a bid at that price is made, he sells it (ignoring effects such as expected positive market movements that may make this not cheating and simply a prospective valuation). The person purchasing the good does not know (or claims to not know) its true value, and is essentially the proctor receiving the torn up test. The proctor trusts the banker to have appraised the good at its true value (the test being $1 per question answered). When the test is not torn up, the number of cheaters is presumably lowered, because the proctor knows the true value, and thus will not pay more than he should.
My question basically boils down to: Isn’t this type of test much more in the element of a banker (claiming the test is worth more when one can’t verify its true value) than a politician? And thus, because of that, the banker would be more likely to cheat on this type of test?
Always an interesting read!
Check out this sweet econ related song (#6)
http://bababrinkman.bandcamp.com/album/the-rap-guide-to-human-nature
It is super amazing. Got the link from “mind hacks”
I’m depressed by your findings. But, on a side note, I love “Predictably Irrational.” I’m especially intrigued by the differences in expectations that we have of social vs. business relationships. I work in the corporate social responsibility field where those relationships are often blurred. Your book in combination with Oren Harman’s book, “The Price of Altruism,” has inspired me to make our motivations more transparent. Many of our initiatives have strong social/altruist benefits – but all have business rational.
That’s an interesting point, Stephanie. I’m an MBA student at the Thunderbird School of Global Management where responsible business is really the core of the school (our President was foundational in developing the Principles of Responsible Management Education) and I think a lot of our students face that question of how to manage social vs. business responsibilities. It’s great to see that there are corporate leaders that are recognizing these issues. I’ve heard about “The Price of Altruism” and I’ll definitely look into it now.
Overall, I thought that this was a very interesting topic to discuss in the video. I do have to say that I agree with how someone may think that their country would cheat more than another, because thats what I would say. Also, with the last part, I would have been wrong because I would have guessed that the politicians would cheat more than the bankers.
On the subject of politicians –
Did the prosecutor in the Blagojevitch case (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/us/18jury.html) make a mistake by charging 24 counts? Jurors split on some, but with different splits — making it, I suspect, easier to remain resolute on an 11-1 vote. (And also prolonging the time to reach that near-consensus).
What’s the behavioral economics slant on what surely were blunders by the prosecution?
In the ex-soviet-block country I came from, it is OK for ordinary people to cheat the government (not paying taxes) even now, 20 years after the end of the block. The disintegration that happened during the years of suppression is still in place in the minds of the local people and prevents them from becoming citizens of their country. Consequently, there is very little “internal” reason for the members of the government to “live up to the standards” or simply said – not to cheat back. Luckily, my country was accepted in the EU and there is a lot of motivation (funding) to contain obvious cheating on the part of government. What will prevent the population from cheating, though?