Cheating more for less: Upward social comparisons motivate the poorly compensated to cheat |
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Authors: | Leslie K. John George Loewenstein Scott I. Rick |
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Affiliation: | 1. Harvard Business School, United States;2. Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, United States;3. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, United States |
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Abstract: | Intuitively, people should cheat more when cheating is more lucrative, but we find that the effect of performance-based pay-rates on dishonesty depends on how readily people can compare their pay-rate to that of others. In Experiment 1, participants were paid 5 cents or 25 cents per self-reported point in a trivia task, and half were aware that they could have received the alternative pay-rate. Lower pay-rates increased cheating when the prospect of a higher pay-rate was salient. Experiment 2 illustrates that this effect is driven by the ease with which poorly compensated participants can compare their pay to that of others who earn a higher pay-rate. Our results suggest that low pay-rates are, in and of themselves, unlikely to promote dishonesty. Instead, it is the salience of upward social comparisons that encourages the poorly compensated to cheat. |
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Keywords: | Dishonesty Decision making Social comparison Fairness Pay secrecy |
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