15:40 - 17:10
Location: 223 - Floor 1
Chair/s:
Marta Rosa
Yue Yu - Explaining Crime Causation Using an Experiment on Cheating: A study of Situational Action Theory in China and Germany
Ori Weisel - Corrupt Collaboration Around the Globe
Marta Rosa - Social Norms, Belief Distortion, and Strategic Misconduct: An Experimental Approach to Portuguese Residents’ Cheating Behaviour
Submission 117
Corrupt Collaboration Around the Globe
panel.6-223 - Floor 1-02
Presented by: Ori Weisel
Ori Weisel 1, Jonas Ludwig 2, Jonathan Schulz 3, Shaul Shalvi 4, Ivan Soraperra 5
1 Tel Aviv University
2 Technical University Berlin
3 George Mason University
4 University of Amsterdam
5 Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Humans are an especially cooperative species. We are also remarkably honest, even when tempted to lie to secure personal profit. A recent body of work demonstrates that when honesty and cooperation are at odds honesty often gives way to corrupt collaboration, suggesting that honesty and collaboration are tradeable moral currencies. In 20 countries (N≅11,500) we explored how the balance between individual (dis)honesty, collaborative (dis)honesty, and individual cooperativeness depends on the cultural setting, connecting to a growing body of research demonstrating significant cultural variation in ethical thinking and behavior. At the individual level, the tendency to engage in corrupt collaboration is positively related to individual dishonesty and negatively to individual cooperativeness. This result suggests that although a successful, mutually beneficial relationship with a partner, which is based on joint dishonesty, clearly requires cooperation, a cooperative disposition, which is related to a more general tendency toward moral behavior, seems to hinder such joint, corrupt enterprises. At the country level, the main result is that the tendency to switch from being honest when acting alone to being dishonest in collaboration with others is positively related to the Prevalence of Rule Violations in the country (PRV; a measure of political fraud, tax evasion and corruption). Our results are the first to demonstrate how individual and collaborative dishonesty co-vary across societies. Policies aimed at curbing dishonesty should take this variation into account.