What makes you more likely to lie and cheat?

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In Dan Ariely‘s fascinating new book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves he does an excellent job of dissecting what motivates us to cheat or not to.

In Ariely‘s recent piece for the WSJ, a chart does a great job of breaking down the factors he found most influence us when it comes to dishonesty.

What are they? (I’ve included links to related studies):

What increases dishonesty:

Ability to rationalize
Conflicts of interest
Creativity
Previous immoral acts
Being depleted (tired)
Others benefiting from our dishonesty
Watching others behave dishonestly
Culture that gives examples of dishonesty

What has no effect:

Probability of being caught
Amount of money to be gained

What decreases dishonesty:

Honor pledges
Signature placement
Moral reminders
Supervision

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Related posts:

5 things you didn’t know about deception

Do we lie more when we text? Which medium makes us the most honest?

“You can’t bullshit a bullshitter” — or can you?

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