Excerpted from: Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely, HarperCollins Books, 2008
“There are two types of dishonesty. One is the type of dishonesty that evokes the image of her crooks knocking off a gas station.
Then there’s a second type of dishonesty. This is a kind committed by people who generally consider themselves honest — the men and women who have borrowed a pen from a conference site, take an extra set of soda from the soft drink dispenser, exaggerated the cost of their television on their property loss report, or falsely reported a meal with and Enid is a business expense.
In multiple experiments, when students were given leeway to cheat, they did — but only a little. [Apparently there is some upper limit to what students consider to be an acceptable level of cheating.] Even in situations where the students had virtually no chance of getting caught, they did cheat, but they didn’t become wildly dishonest.
When students are given a moral reminder before taking an exam — say, being asked to sign an honor pledge — cheating was practically eliminated altogether — even if the school didn’t really have an honor code.”
The principal: if we are reminded of morality at the moment we are tempted, and we’re much more likely to be honest. So, oaths and rules must be recalled at, or just before, the moment of temptation.
* * * * *
“Hard cash tends to make people more honest. Many people feel comfortable taking a pen from work, but few would reach into the petty cash drawer and grab a couple dollars.”
The principal: The further a person is removed from cash money, the more yielding they are to temptation. Think: expense reports, insurance claims, credit card expenditures.
* * * * *
Want more from the Homa Files?
Click link => The Homa Files Blog
The Homa Files 
Leave a comment