White Lies

In this paper we distinguish between two types of white lies: those that help others at the expense of the person telling the lie, which we term altruistic white lie s, and those that help both others and the liar, which we term Pareto white lies . We find that a large fraction of participants are r...

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Published in:Management science Vol. 58; no. 4; pp. 723 - 733
Main Authors: Erat, Sanjiv, Gneezy, Uri
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hanover, MD INFORMS 01.04.2012
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Subjects:
Altruism
Applied sciences
cheap talk
Deception
Dishonesty
Exact sciences and technology
Experimental methods
Experimentelle Ökonomik
experiments
Feedback
Game theory
Gender differences
Geschlechterforschung
Glaubwürdigkeit
Guilt
Human behaviour
Income distribution
Kommunikation
lies
Lying
Management science
Men
Music industry
Operational research and scientific management
Operational research. Management science
Pareto efficiency
Payments
Payoffs
Philosophers
Placebos
Regression analysis
Social behaviour
Studies
Truth
Women
United States
Human
Social preference
Lying
cheap talk
Information communication
Pareto optimum
deception
experiments
lies
Altruism
Woman
Game theory
ISSN:0025-1909, 1526-5501
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this paper we distinguish between two types of white lies: those that help others at the expense of the person telling the lie, which we term altruistic white lie s, and those that help both others and the liar, which we term Pareto white lies . We find that a large fraction of participants are reluctant to tell even a Pareto white lie, demonstrating a pure lie aversion independent of any social preferences for outcomes. In contrast, a nonnegligible fraction of participants are willing to tell an altruistic white lie that hurts them a bit but significantly helps others. Comparing white lies to those where lying increases the liar's payoff at the expense of another reveals important insights into the interaction of incentives, lying aversion, and preferences for payoff distributions. Finally, in line with previous findings, women are less likely to lie when it is costly to the other side. Interestingly though, we find that women are more likely to tell an altruistic lie. This paper was accepted by Teck Ho, decision analysis.
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ISSN:0025-1909
1526-5501
DOI:10.1287/mnsc.1110.1449