Is dishonesty persistent?

Abstract

We study if (dis)honest behavior is persistent. We investigate this by exposing participants to different incentives to lie over time. Some participants are first exposed to high incentives and then to lower incentives for others the reverse. If (dis)honest behavior is persistent, the propensity to lie depends on past incentives. We find no evidence of persistence in honest or dishonest behavior. Exposing participants first to high incentives does not result in a lasting positive effect on dishonesty after the incentives are lowered away. Similarly, after correcting for a time trend, subjects still respond strongly to high incentives after facing low incentives.