Do we lie in groups? An experimental evidence

ABSTRACT

We study whether there is a difference between individual and group unethical behaviour in an experimental study among adolescents. We find that on average, groups cheat more than individuals, but there are important differences across age. Younger groups cheat more than younger individuals but there is no difference between older individuals and groups. The way in which groups are formed and friendship ties among group members do not seem to matter.

KEYWORDS:

• Cheating
• dishonesty
• group decision-making
• adolescence
• economic experiment

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C93
• D63
• D70

Highlights

• We study differences in cheating behaviour between individuals and groups.

• On average, groups cheat more than individuals but age matters.

• Among older students, there is no difference between individuals and groups.

• We do not find any evidence of dishonesty among younger individuals.

• The way in which groups are formed and friendship ties do not seem to matter.

*Support from the Czech Science Foundation (13-20217S) is gratefully acknowledged

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

¹ The average dropout rate was low (1.8%), mitigating the problem of selection into higher grade.

² In order to meet different preferences and to avoid satiation effect, rewards could be selected from a variety of sweets.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Grantová Agentura České Republiky:[Grant Number 13-20217S].