Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/110860 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5363
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We conducted an experiment with 182 inmates from a maximum security prison to analyze the impact of criminal identity salience on cheating. The results show that inmates cheat more when we exogenously render their criminal identity more salient. This effect is specific to individuals who have a criminal identity, because an additional placebo experiment shows that regular citizens do not become more dishonest in response to crime-related reminders. Moreover, our experimental measure of cheating correlates with inmates’ offenses against in-prison regulation. Together, these findings suggest that criminal identity salience plays a crucial role in rule violating behavior.
Subjects: 
dishonesty
identity
crime
prison
experiment
JEL: 
K00
C93
K14
K42
Z10
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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