Deception and confession: Experimental evidence from a deception game in Japan

This study investigated lying behavior and the behavior of people who were deceived by using a deception game (Gneezy, 2005) in both anonymity and face-to-face conditions, and in two different monetary payoffs between senders and receivers. Moreover, subjects were used to investigate lying behavior in students as well as in people from a variety of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Wealso explored how liars feel about lying by using new messages sent from the senders to the receivers after the receivers selected the option on which the earnings in the experiment depended. The following results are obtained: i) lying behavior in the senders significantly differed between students and non-students at a payoff in the anonymity treatment, but did not significantly differ between students in the anonymity and face-to-face treatments; ii) lying behavior was not influenced by gender; iii) liars' feelings about lying were influenced more in the face-to-face treatment than in the anonymity treatment; and iv) the receivers who were deceived were more likely to believe a sender's message tobe true in the anonymity treatment. This study implies that having face-to-face contact prompts liars to confess their behavior because they mayfeel remorse orguilt. In addition, people who are deceived overestimate the chances of not being deceived by a stranger.