Behavioral Economics and decision making: investigating the willingness to lie and the impact of noise on worker performance by gender through two economic experiments

  • Gneezy, Uri (Coinvestigador)
  • Kajackaite, Agne (Coinvestigador)
  • PARRA, DANIEL (Coinvestigador)

Proyecto: Investigación

Detalles del proyecto

Descripción

The cornerstone of classical economic theory is that individuals seek to maximize their material payoff by acting rationally. The Behavioral Economics program refers to this assumed representative agent as “Econ” (Thaler, 2015). However, humans are not Econs, as shown by this Behavioral Economics program, and are affected by various external and internal factors beyond pure rationality. This proposal aims to investigate decision-making within behavioral economics through two different experiments. The first experiment will examine the willingness to lie in social interactions and will provide insights into the underlying motivations for dishonesty. By understanding the decision-making process involved in such interactions, this study will provide valuable information for policymakers and organizations seeking to promote ethical behavior. The second experiment will investigate the effect of office noises on cognitive performance in a laboratory setting. We hypothesize that the impact of noise on performance is different for men and women. In particular, we hypothesize that women might suffer more from office background sounds than men. Through this study, we will explore how workplace-related noise affects productivity and what measures can be taken to mitigate its impact, focusing on how men and women may respond differently. Both experiments aim to contribute to our understanding of how people make decisions in different contexts, with the ultimate goal of providing insights that can inform policy and practice. a. Rationale and motivation Understanding how people make decisions, considering that they have bounded rationality and are affected by cognitive biases and intrinsic motivations, is vital to creating effective interventions. The traditional economic theory assumes that individuals act rationally to maximize their material payoff, but the behavioral economics program shows that humans are not purely rational and are influenced by various internal and external factors. The proposed research is motivated by the need to examine decision-making within two topics understudied in economics from a behavioral economics perspective: the interaction between lying and social preferences and the impact of noise and cognitive performance by gender. Dishonesty and social preferences The first aspect of the research proposal investigates how the willingness to lie differs in social interactions compared with the standard cheating games where lying is an individual decision (see Abeler et al. 2019). This experiment will help us gain insights into the underlying motivations for dishonesty. This study will provide valuable information for policymakers and organizations seeking to promote ethical behavior and reduce cheating. Behavioral research about the willingness to lie, based mainly on the matrix task (Mazar et al., 2008) and the die-roll task (Fischbacher and Föllmi-Heusi, 2013), has argued that the deviation from the world full of liars that the economic theory predicts can be explained by people disutility when they are dishonest. Kajackaite and Gneezy (2017) show that individuals follow a cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the intrinsic cost of lying and the incentives to lie. Gneezy et al. (2018), Khalmetski and Sliwka (2019), and Abeler et al. (2019) present theoretical and experimental evidence in which they show that individuals, indeed, have an intrinsic cost of lying, and they care about what others think in relation with their honesty. Dufwenberg and Dufwenberg (2018) also explain lying behavior by the intrinsic cost of lying, but they argue that this cost increases proportionally to the amount in which the individual is perceived to cheat. Regardless of whether the costs are fixed or variable, one factor that proved to decrease it is having a third party benefited from the lie. Wiltermuth (2011) and Gino et al. (2013) show that people view cheating as less unethical if they can justify their behavior by benefiting others, as a consequence their disutility from lying decreases. This body of research shows that when facing an opportunity to cheat, people balance material motivations with some intrinsic costs and image costs. Moreover, we can see that having a pro-social excuse can help with this trade-off by making it less costly to lie. Therefore, studying how social preferences such as reciprocity interact with the willingness to be dishonest is an influential research agenda that will contribute to the evidence on lying and dishonesty in general and more importantly will fill the gap in topic by bringing the knowledge on social preferences to the dishonesty research. In particular, this research will contribute to the lying and dishonesty research by offering insights into understanding the trade-off between material benefits and the intrinsic cost of lying. Noise and cognitive performance The second experiment proposed in this project will assess the effect of office noise on cognitive performance to assess the potential detrimental impact of noisy environments on workers and whether it creates a performance gap between men and women. In particular, we hypothesize that the impact of noise on performance is different for men and women and that women may suffer more from office background sounds than men. Through this study, we will explore how workplace-related noise affects productivity and what measures can be taken to mitigate its impact, focusing on how men and women may respond differently. Even if there is some research about noise from psychology and biology, behavioral economists have paid very little attention to it. In particular, no previous studies have assess the potential impact of daily noises in workplace on cognitive performance and how it may also differ by gender. However, the evidence in different fields serves as a ground for hypothesizing that it may exist a detrimental impact of noise on performance at the workplace. For instance, Galvan et al. (2013) show that overhearing a one-sided (cell phone) conversation versus a two-sided conversation affects bystanders' memory but the performance in a task that requires attention was not affected (solving anagrams). Consistent with these findings, Dean (2019) shows that noise affects the cognitive function of workers, but the level of effort they put into their tasks is not. Finally, in a metanalysis, Szalma & Hancock (2011) show that even if there are mixed results on the impact of noise on different types of tasks, it increases stress, which in the end may be related to happiness at work. In our study, we will use laboratory experiments to assess the impact of noises in different tasks that involve memory, concentration, and ability. The idea is to evaluate whether the impact of work-related noises affects different cognitive abilities. This research is aimed to be relevant for economics and management because it will inform managers on how to create better environments that promote happiness, productivity, and equality. b. Relevance and potential impact The proposed research is relevant because it addresses critical issues in decision-making that affect individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. Understanding how factors like dishonesty in social interactions and workplace-related noise influence decision-making can inform policy and practice to promote ethical behavior, improve workplace productivity, and reduce gender inequalities. The research has the potential to make significant contributions to our understanding of decision-making within behavioral economics producing high-quality research. The findings can inform policy and practice to promote ethical behavior and workplace productivity while reducing gender inequalities. Ultimately, the research will provide insights that can contribute to a better understanding of how people make decisions in different contexts and inform policy and practice.
EstadoFinalizado
Fecha de inicio/Fecha fin01/07/2331/12/24

Palabras clave

  • Brechas de genero
  • Comportamiento
  • Desempeño laboral
  • Deshonestidad

Estado del Proyecto

  • En Ejecución

Financiación de proyectos

  • Interna
  • Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

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