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Everybody Else Is Doing It: Exploring Social Transmission of Lying Behavior

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  • Heather Mann
  • Ximena Garcia-Rada
  • Daniel Houser
  • Dan Ariely

Abstract

Lying is a common occurrence in social interactions, but what predicts whether an individual will tell a lie? While previous studies have focused on personality factors, here we asked whether lying tendencies might be transmitted through social networks. Using an international sample of 1,687 socially connected pairs, we investigated whether lying tendencies were related in socially connected individuals, and tested two moderators of observed relationships. Participants recruited through a massive open online course reported how likely they would be to engage in specific lies; a friend or relative responded to the same scenarios independently. We classified lies according to their beneficiary (antisocial vs. prosocial lies), and their directness (lies of commission vs. omission), resulting in four unique lying categories. Regression analyses showed that antisocial commission, antisocial omission, and prosocial commission lying tendencies were all uniquely related in connected pairs, even when the analyses were limited to pairs that were not biologically related. For antisocial lies of commission, these relationships were strongest, and were moderated by amount of time spent together. Randomly paired individuals from the same countries were also related in their antisocial commission lying tendencies, signifying country-level norms. Our results indicate that a person's lying tendencies can be predicted by the lying tendencies of his or her friends and family members.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Mann & Ximena Garcia-Rada & Daniel Houser & Dan Ariely, 2014. "Everybody Else Is Doing It: Exploring Social Transmission of Lying Behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-9, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0109591
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109591
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hessel Oosterbeek & Randolph Sloof & Gijs van de Kuilen, 2004. "Cultural Differences in Ultimatum Game Experiments: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 7(2), pages 171-188, June.
    2. Simon Gaechter & Benedikt Herrmann & Christian Thoeni, 2010. "Culture and Cooperation," Discussion Papers 2010-09, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    3. Baron, Jonathan & Ritov, Ilana, 1994. "Reference Points and Omission Bias," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 475-498, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Houser & John A. List & Marco Piovesan & Anya Savikhin Samek & Joachim Winter, 2015. "On the Origins of Dishonesty: From Parents to Children," NBER Working Papers 20897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Gustavo Gouvêa Maciel, 2021. "What We (Don't) Know so Far About Tolerance Towards Corruption in European Democracies: Measurement Approaches, Determinants, and Types," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 1131-1153, October.
    3. Houser, Daniel & List, John A. & Piovesan, Marco & Samek, Anya & Winter, Joachim, 2016. "Dishonesty: From parents to children," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 242-254.
    4. Carolin V. Zorell, 2020. "Nudges, Norms, or Just Contagion? A Theory on Influences on the Practice of (Non-)Sustainable Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-21, December.
    5. Ariely, Dan & Garcia-Rada, Ximena & Gödker, Katrin & Hornuf, Lars & Mann, Heather, 2019. "The impact of two different economic systems on dishonesty," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 179-195.
    6. Susanne Braun & Lars Hornuf, 2015. "Leadership and persistency in spontaneuous dishonesty," IAAEU Discussion Papers 201510, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    7. Drouvelis, Michalis & Pearce, Graeme, 2023. "Is there a link between intelligence and lying?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 182-203.

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