Lying Through Others: Does Delegation Promote Deception?

We present experiments designed to focus on one of several possible explanations for this intriguing behavior – that delegation reduces lie aversion. The experiments reveal that subjects are more willing to lie through a delegate than to lie directly despite controlling for potential effects of delegated decision-making on preferences over payoffs, probabilities of actions, and/or the desire to avoid taking a decision.

Source: Journal of Economic Psychology - August 29, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research