The Dishonesty of Honest People
1. Research Problem, Rationale, and Objectives
Research Problem: Why are people dishonest? How do people choose between being honorable and being prosperous? And how do people create a sustainable level of dishonesty in their everyday lives while still maintaining a positive self-view?
Rationale: Economic and psychological implications.
Objectives: Investigate how external and internal rewards work in concert to produce (dis)honesty. Determine under what conditions will people behave more honestly/dishonestly, and what factors lead to such outcomes. Focus on two mechanisms that people employ to maintain their positive self-concept: categorization and attention to standards.
2. Overview of Theory and Hypothesis
Theory: The theory of self-concept maintenance suggests that people typically act dishonestly and achieve external benefits from said acts, but only to the extent that their behaviour stills allows them to maintain a positive view of themselves in terms of being honest.
Hypothesis: The study’s main hypothesis stems from the theory of self-concept maintenance (explained above). People facing this motivational dilemma – gaining from cheating vs. maintaining a positive self-concept as honest individuals – tend to solve it adaptively by finding a balance between the two motivating forces. They do so in order to acquire some financial benefit from behaving dishonestly while still maintaining their positive self-concept.
1. The band of acceptable dishonesty is limited by internal reward considerations.
2. The size of this band depends on one’s ability to categorize actions as something other than dishonest, as well as the attention that they pay to their standards for honesty at the time of the dishonest act.
Although there may be many ways to find such a compromise, the study focuses on two particular means; categorization and attention to standards.
Categorization: The study explains, “When this mechanism is activated, people can categorize
Research Problem: Why are people dishonest? How do people choose between being honorable and being prosperous? And how do people create a sustainable level of dishonesty in their everyday lives while still maintaining a positive self-view?
Rationale: Economic and psychological implications.
Objectives: Investigate how external and internal rewards work in concert to produce (dis)honesty. Determine under what conditions will people behave more honestly/dishonestly, and what factors lead to such outcomes. Focus on two mechanisms that people employ to maintain their positive self-concept: categorization and attention to standards.
2. Overview of Theory and Hypothesis
Theory: The theory of self-concept maintenance suggests that people typically act dishonestly and achieve external benefits from said acts, but only to the extent that their behaviour stills allows them to maintain a positive view of themselves in terms of being honest.
Hypothesis: The study’s main hypothesis stems from the theory of self-concept maintenance (explained above). People facing this motivational dilemma – gaining from cheating vs. maintaining a positive self-concept as honest individuals – tend to solve it adaptively by finding a balance between the two motivating forces. They do so in order to acquire some financial benefit from behaving dishonestly while still maintaining their positive self-concept.
1. The band of acceptable dishonesty is limited by internal reward considerations.
2. The size of this band depends on one’s ability to categorize actions as something other than dishonest, as well as the attention that they pay to their standards for honesty at the time of the dishonest act.
Although there may be many ways to find such a compromise, the study focuses on two particular means; categorization and attention to standards.
Categorization: The study explains, “When this mechanism is activated, people can categorize