Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141619 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9860
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We conduct a field experiment on 427 Israeli soldiers who each rolled a six-sided die in private and reported the outcome. For every point reported, the soldier received an additional half-hour early release from the army base on Thursday afternoon. We find that the higher a soldier's military entrance score, the more honest he is on average. We replicate this finding on a sample of 156 civilians paid in cash for their die reports. Furthermore, the civilian experiments reveal that two measures of cognitive ability predict honesty, whereas general self-report honesty questions and a consistency check among them are of no value. We provide a rationale for the relationship between cognitive ability and honesty and discuss its generalizability.
Subjects: 
soldiers
cognitive ability
honesty
high non-monetary stakes
JEL: 
C93
M51
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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