How Does Unethical Behavior Spread? Gender Matters!

Arbeitspapier

Using an online experiment with two distinct dishonesty games, we analyze how dishonesty in men and women is influenced by either thinking or learning about the dishonesty of others in a related, but different situation. Thinking is induced by eliciting a belief about others' dishonesty in a different game. We find that such belief elicitation (1) increases males' (but not females') dishonesty and (2) has no influence on participants' beliefs about the dishonesty of others in the game that they themselves play. Learning is induced by receiving a signal about the actual honest or dishonest choices of others in a different game. We find that the level of unethical behavior provided in such a signal (1) increases females' (but not males') dishonesty and (2) is positively correlated with participants' beliefs about the dishonesty of others in the game that they themselves play. We conclude that gender matters when examining how unethical behavior spreads. Both genders update their beliefs about others' dishonesty in the same way when presented with information about others' choices, but dishonesty in men is triggered by merely thinking about others' dishonesty, while women only respond to actual information on others' dishonesty.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10314

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Design of Experiments: General ; Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles ; Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty: General ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
• Thema: dishonesty ; unethical behaviour ; thinking and learning about other's dishonesty ; gender ; experiment

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Böhm, Kim L. ; Goerg, Sebastian J. ; Wasserka-Zhurakhovska, Lilia
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (wo): Munich
• (wann): 2023

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/271958
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ