| By: |
Rosaz, Julie (University of Lyon 2);
Villeval, Marie Claire (CNRS, GATE) |
| Abstract: |
This paper presents the results of a laboratory experiment in which workers
perform a real-effort task and supervisors report the workers’ performance to
the experimenter. The report is non verifiable and determines the earnings of
both the supervisor and the worker. We find that not all the supervisors, but
at least one third of them bias their report. Both selfish black lies
(increasing the supervisor's earnings while decreasing the worker's payoff)
and Pareto white lies (increasing the earnings of both) according to Erat and
Gneezy (2009)'s terminology are frequent. In contrast, spiteful black lies
(decreasing the earnings of both) and altruistic white lies (increasing the
earnings of workers but decreasing those of the supervisor) are almost
non-existent. The supervisors' second-order beliefs and their decision to lie
are highly correlated, suggesting that guilt aversion plays a role. |
| Keywords: |
evaluation, lie-aversion, guilt aversion, self-image, deception, lies, experiments |
| JEL: |
C91 D82 M52 |
| Date: |
2011–07 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5884&r=neu |