Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Jack Engelhard. I am from Saint Louis, Missouri. I am a sport management major here at FSU with the plan to go to law school. My goal for the future is to build a career as a sports agent.

Honesty and Observability

Abstract

This economics study introduces an experimental design to
examine how varying levels of observation affect dishonest
behavior in a Fischbacher & Follmi-Heusi (2013) style lying
game. Previous research compared lying when 0% or 100% of
decisions were observed (Gneezy et al., 2018; Abeler et al.,
2019). This project expands on that by introducing 20% and
50% observation conditions.
These new settings create environments where participants have
incentives to lie but must consider social image costs. By
observing individual decisions, the study estimates behavior
more precisely, especially among unobserved participants. This
allows for testing new predictions of lying models that factor in
social image costs.
This work ties into classical economic theories by challenging
the assumption that individuals act solely out of self-interest to
maximize utility. Instead, it integrates behavioral economics
concepts, demonstrating how social image and the potential for
observation influence decision-making, even in situations where
economic gain is possible through dishonest

Keywords: Honesty, Observability, Economics