Experimental cheating studies rely on honor systems and rigged computers to create temptation

Evidence

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. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 135

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Clarifies the two standard biological/anonymous cheating paradigms used throughout the book’s experimental claims.