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Category: Project

Description: In this study, we will investigate the relationship between honesty and observability using a large sample of the German population. For this purpose, we included in the SOEP-IS 2020 wave a within-subject experiment consisting of the lying paradigms from Fischbacher and Föllmi-Heusi (2013) and Gneezy et al. (2018). Our main research question is whether observability has an impact on the lying behavior of respondents. Additionally, we will investigate the individual and socio-economic correlates of lying behavior under observable and unobservable conditions. The correlation between lying and observability, along with the micro and personality data of SOEP, will allow us to shed light on the behavioral correlates of intrinsic and image-related motives for lying. Our results should be of broad interest in the social sciences as well as to policy makers willing to understand better the impact of their interventions.