RETRACTED: Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - Tập 109 Số 38 - Trang 15197-15200 - 2012
Lisa L. Shu1, Nina Mažar2, Francesca Gino3, Dan Ariely4, Max H. Bazerman3
1Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
2bRotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3E6;
3cHarvard Business School, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02163; and
4dFuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708

Tóm tắt

Many written forms required by businesses and governments rely on honest reporting. Proof of honest intent is typically provided through signature at the end of, e.g., tax returns or insurance policy forms. Still, people sometimes cheat to advance their financial self-interests—at great costs to society. We test an easy-to-implement method to discourage dishonesty: signing at the beginning rather than at the end of a self-report, thereby reversing the order of the current practice. Using laboratory and field experiments, we find that signing before—rather than after—the opportunity to cheat makes ethics salient when they are needed most and significantly reduces dishonesty.

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Thông tin xuất bản

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Tập 109 Số 38

15197-15200

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