| Summary: | In many situations
people behave ethically, while elsewhere dishonesty reigns. Studies of the
determinants of unethical behavior often use random assignment of participants
in various conditions to identify contextual or psychological factors
influencing dishonesty. However, in many real-world contexts, people
deliberately choose or avoid specific environments. In three experiments (total
N = 2,124) enabling self-selection of participants in two similar tasks, one of
which allowed for cheating, we found that participants who chose the task where
they could lie for financial gain reported a higher number of correct
predictions than those who were assigned it at random. Introduction of
financial costs for entering the cheating-allowing task led to a decrease in
interest in the task; however, it also led to more intense cheating. An
intervention aimed to discourage participants from choosing the
cheating-enabling environment based on social norm information did not have the
expected effect; on the contrary, it backfired. In summary, the results suggest
that people low in moral character are likely to eventually dominate
cheating-enabling environments, where they then cheat extensively.
Interventions trying to limit the preference of this environment may not have
the expected effect as they could lead to the selection of the worst
fraudsters.
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