Cheating in the Lab Predicts Fraud in the Field: An Experiment in Public Transportation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dai, Zhixin; Galeotti, Fabio; Villeval, Marie Claire
• 署名单位: Renmin University of China; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon (ENS de LYON); Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1; Universite Jean Monnet; Universite Lyon 2; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of Innsbruck
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2616
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1081-1100
• 关键词: Dishonesty; fare dodging; field experiment; External validity; public transportation

摘要

We conduct an artefactual field experiment using a diversified sample of passengers of public transportation to study attitudes toward dishonesty. We find that the diversity of behavior in terms of (dis) honesty in laboratory tasks and in the field correlate. Moreover, individuals who have just been fined in the field behave more honestly in the lab than the other fare dodgers, except when context is introduced. Overall, we show that simple tests of dishonesty in the lab can predict moral firmness in life, although fraudsters who care about social image cheat less when behavior can be verified ex post by the experimenter.