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Dishonest or professional behavior? Can we tell? A comment on: Cohn et al. 2014, Nature 516, 86-89, ''Business culture and dishonesty in the banking industry''

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  • Thomas Stöckl

Abstract

By means of a coin tossing experiment Cohn et al. (2014) study business culture in the banking industry and report that employees of a large, international bank behave honestly in a control condition while a significant proportion of them becomes dishonest when their professional identity as bank employees is rendered salient. The authors conclude that the business culture in the banking industry weakens and undermines the honesty norm. We argue that the data allows for an alternative interpretation based on so far unrecognized dynamics in the experimental design. This interpretation classifies bankers' behavior in the treatment condition to be in accordance with the professional requirements of the banking industry. The two competing interpretations cannot be flawlessly separated and, consequently, bankers' behavior cannot reliably be classified as resulting from a problematic business culture.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Stöckl, 2015. "Dishonest or professional behavior? Can we tell? A comment on: Cohn et al. 2014, Nature 516, 86-89, ''Business culture and dishonesty in the banking industry''," Working Papers 2015-11, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    • Handle: RePEc:inn:wpaper:2015-11
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Bucciol, Alessandro & Piovesan, Marco, 2011. "Luck or cheating? A field experiment on honesty with children," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 73-78, February.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Experimental finance; Dishonesty; Business culture; Banking industry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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