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Do children cheat to be honored? A natural experiment on dishonesty in a math competition

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  • Azar, Ofer H.
  • Applebaum, Mark

Abstract

We use data from a children mathematics contest in Israel that involved a first unmonitored online stage at home and a second monitored stage in class, both with the same difficulty level. The performance deterioration from the first to the second stage allows to estimate the dishonesty in the unmonitored first stage (mostly in the form of being helped by the parents or older siblings). We also analyze dishonesty using a set of 3–4 problems that appeared in both tests. Contrary to much of the literature on gender effects in dishonesty, in our data girls were not more honest than boys. The sample consists of children in second to sixth grades, and we find that older children are significantly more honest. A stronger socio-economic level of the city was associated with more cheating. Children from religious schools tended to be more honest than children from secular schools. We also discuss other potential reasons for differences between performance in the two stages, such as pressure and stress, but conclude that they are secondary to the effects of dishonesty.

Suggested Citation

  • Azar, Ofer H. & Applebaum, Mark, 2020. "Do children cheat to be honored? A natural experiment on dishonesty in a math competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 143-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:169:y:2020:i:c:p:143-157
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.11.007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Giuseppe Attanasi & Alessandro Bucciol & Simona Cicognani & Natalia Montinari, 2017. "The Italian North-South Divide in Perceived Dishonesty: A Matter of Trust?," Working Papers of BETA 2017-32, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    2. Vazquez, Jose J. & Chiang, Eric P. & Sarmiento-Barbieri, Ignacio, 2021. "Can we stay one step ahead of cheaters? A field experiment in proctoring online open book exams," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dishonesty; Cheating; Math competitions; Children; Natural experiment; Gender differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • C99 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Other
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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