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Students Cheat More: Comparing the Dishonesty of a Student Sample and a Representative Sample in the Laboratory

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  • Toke Reinholt Fosgaard

Abstract

Unethical behavior has been found in numerous experiments, yet mainly among university students. The use of student participants is potentially problematic for generalizability and the resulting policy recommendations. In this paper, I report on an experiment with potential dishonesty. The experiment was completed by a representative non‐student sample and a student sample. The results show that cheating does exist, but also that students cheat systematically more. This suggests that focusing on students as participants tends to overestimate the magnitude of cheating. I further find that age is an important explanation for this difference in dishonesty. The older the participants are, the less they cheat.

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  • Toke Reinholt Fosgaard, 2020. "Students Cheat More: Comparing the Dishonesty of a Student Sample and a Representative Sample in the Laboratory," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(1), pages 257-279, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:122:y:2020:i:1:p:257-279
    DOI: 10.1111/sjoe.12326
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    2. Alice Guerra & Emanuela Randon & Antonello E. Scorcu, 2022. "Gender and deception: Evidence from survey data among adolescent gamblers," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 618-645, November.
    3. Geraldes, Diogo & Heinicke, Franziska & Kim, Duk Gyoo, 2021. "Big and small lies," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    4. Bucciol, Alessandro & Zarri, Luca, 2021. "The Non-Cognitive Roots of Civic Honesty: Evidence from the US," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Elisabeth Gsottbauer & Daniel Müller & Samuel Müller & Stefan T. Trautmann & Galina Zudenkova, 2020. "Social class and (un)ethical behavior: Causal versus correlational evidence," Working Papers 2020-10, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    6. Eitan Elaad, 2022. "Deceptive Behavior: Effects of Rational Thinking, Narcissism, and Self-Assessed Lie- and Truth Related Abilities," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    7. Klaus Ackermann & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Russell Smyth, 2023. "Broadband Internet and Cognitive Functioning," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 99(327), pages 536-563, December.

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