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Studying deception without deceiving participants: An experiment of deception experiments

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  • Federica Alberti

    (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group, Jena)

  • Werner Güth

    (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group, Jena)

Abstract

Banning deception in economic experiments does not exclude experiments with participants in the role of experimenters who can gain by deceiving those in the role of participants. We compare treatments with and without possible deception by experimenter-participants to test whether deception aects behaviour of participant-participants in a dictator experiment and whether participants in the role of experimenters engage in deception. We nd no dierence in behaviour of participant-participants between the treatments whereas most participants in the role of experimenters engage in deception.

Suggested Citation

  • Federica Alberti & Werner Güth, 2012. "Studying deception without deceiving participants: An experiment of deception experiments," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-024, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    • Handle: RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2012-024
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Daniela Di Cagno & Werner Güth & Giacomo Sillari, 2015. "The better toolbox: Experimental Methodology in Economics and Psychology," Working Papers CESARE 2/2015, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, LUISS Guido Carli.
    2. 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).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Experimental economic methods; Deception; Experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General

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