Experimental cheating paradigms create measurable opportunities to cheat for reward
Evidence
In a typical cheating study, subjects are seated in front of a computer and given a typically tedious task such as difficult arithmetic problems or an obscure general knowledge test. Subjects could win a reward (typically money) for every correct answer or if they achieve a certain overall score. Cheating can be measured in one of several ways. In the “rigged computer” paradigm, subjects are told that they will occasionally see the correct answer to some of the problems due to a computer malfunction. They are instructed to press a certain button to avoid seeing the answer. Dishonesty is measured as the frequency of instances that participants fail to press this button. In another paradigm, participants take a paper-and-pencil test and are randomly assigned to one of two conditions: in the “cheating” condition, an honor system is implemented where participants turn in their answers after recording the percentage of correct responses. In the “no-cheating” condition, the experimenter verifies the number of correct answers in person. Cheating is thought to occur to the extent that the percentage of correct answers is reliably higher in the condition where subjects have an opportunity to cheat. In such experiments, opportunities are created to cheat; there are many reasons and motivations to refrain from cheating. The question is: all else being equal, do thoughts of supernatural monitors curb cheating? — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 135
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes the two experimental paradigms (rigged computer, honor-system paper test) used to measure dishonesty quantitatively.
- XREF: connects to: Experimental cheating studies rely on honor systems and rigged computers to create temptation; Being watched cues reliably boost prosocial behavior and suppress cheating
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Experimental cheating studies rely on honor systems and rigged computers to create temptation; Being watched cues reliably boost prosocial behavior and suppress cheating