Everybody Else Is Doing It: Exploring Social Transmission of Lying Behavior

Abstract

Lying is a common occurrence in social interactions, but what predicts whether an individual will tell a lie? While previous studies have focused on personality factors, here we asked whether lying tendencies might be transmitted through social networks. Using an international sample of 1,687 socially connected pairs, we investigated whether lying tendencies were related in socially connected individuals, and tested two moderators of observed relationships. Participants recruited through a massive open online course reported how likely they would be to engage in specific lies; a friend or relative responded to the same scenarios independently. We classified lies according to their beneficiary (antisocial vs. prosocial lies), and their directness (lies of commission vs. omission), resulting in four unique lying categories. Regression analyses showed that antisocial commission, antisocial omission, and prosocial commission lying tendencies were all uniquely related in connected pairs, even when the analyses were limited to pairs that were not biologically related. For antisocial lies of commission, these relationships were strongest, and were moderated by amount of time spent together. Randomly paired individuals from the same countries were also related in their antisocial commission lying tendencies, signifying country-level norms. Our results indicate that a person's lying tendencies can be predicted by the lying tendencies of his or her friends and family members.

Leadership and Persistency in Spontaneous Dishonesty

“…In line with previous field and laboratory experiments (Ariely et al, 2014;Jiang, 2013), we found that participants cheated, but not to the fullest extent possible. This is in accordance with hypothesis 1.…”

“…With some notable exceptions (Abeler et al, 2014;Erat & Gneezy, 2011;Lundquist, Ellingsen, Gribbe, & Johannesson, 2009), extensive evidence shows that individuals cheat (Alberti & Güth, 2013;Bucciol, Landini, & Piovesan, 2013;Djwadi & Fahr, 2015;Gino, Ayal, & Ariely, 2009;Mann, Garcia-Rada, Houser, & Ariely, 2014), especially when the risk of detection is low (Effron, Bryan, & Murnighan, 2015). In contrast, surprisingly little research has posed the question of how cheating can be prevented.…”

“…As noted previously, studies have found differences in cheating between bankers and control groups, whose professional identity had been made salient (Cohn et al, 2014). Furthermore, research has shown that cheating differs between Germans exposed to socialism or capitalism (Ariely et al, 2014). Both these studies, however, focus on long-term influences that alter cheating (socialization in a stable professional or political environment).…”

On the Origins of Dishonesty: From Parents to Children

“…In line with , when their child was not present the parents in our study were more likely to lie to benefit their child than to benefit themselves. Indeed, a recent paper that investigates the transmission of lying behavior among socially connected individuals finds that an individual's lying tendencies can be predicted by the lying tendencies of his or her friends and family members (Mann et al, 2014). Prize for Parent PC_P -34 parent-child pairs (28 mother and 6 father pairs)…”

Authentic Leadership and Followers’ Cheating Behaviour: A Laboratory Experiment from a Self-Concept Maintenance Perspective

“…The majority of this work addressed the question of whether individuals cheat and how pervasive cheating is across contexts. With some notable exceptions (Abeler et al, 2014;Erat & Gneezy, 2012;Lundquist, Ellingsen, Gribbe, & Johannesson, 2009), extensive evidence shows that individuals cheat (Alberti & Güth, 2013;Bucciol, Landini, & Piovesan, 2013;Djwadi & Fahr, 2015;Gino, Ayal, & Ariely, 2009;Mann, Garcia-Rada, Houser, & Ariely, 2014), especially when the risk of detection is low (Effron, Bryan, & Murnighan, 2015).…”