Bad Boys: How Criminal Identity Salience Affects Rule Violation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cohn, Alain; Marechal, Michel Andre; Noll, Thomas
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; University of Zurich
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdv025
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 1289-1308
• 关键词: measuring emotion; social identity; deterrence; dishonesty; promises; BEHAVIOR; people; IMPACT

摘要

We conducted an experiment with 182 inmates from a maximum security prison to analyze the impact of criminal identity salience on cheating. The results show that inmates cheat more when we exogenously render their criminal identity more salient. This effect is specific to individuals who have a criminal identity, because an additional placebo experiment shows that regular citizens do not become more dishonest in response to crime-related reminders. Moreover, our experimental measure of cheating correlates with inmates' offences against in-prison regulation. Together, these findings suggest that criminal identity salience plays a crucial role in rule violating behaviour.