Interesting Results

Under-the-Radar Dishonesty

Recently published research¹ suggests that people tend to be dishonest when they have the opportunity, but the extent of their dishonesty is relatively limited (i.e., they will cheat a little, but not a lot). The researchers postulate that this enables people to benefit from their dishonesty without harming their self-concept (i.e., their perception of themselves as an honest person). They found support for this theory in a series of experiments, and also found that dishonesty increases when there is room for alternative interpretations of the same act and decreases when attention is drawn to moral standards.

¹ Mazar, Nina, On Amir, and Dan Ariely (2008), “The Dishonesty of Honest People: A Theory of Self-Concept Maintenance”, Journal of Marketing Research, 45(6), 633-644.