10. TheTen Commandments and fraud:
affective stimuli
In the previous chapter we saw the importance of cognitive stimulation, where the chance
that people follow a given norm increases the more concrete the communicated norm is. But
this kind of activation can also deliver the desired behavior by a different path. Research by
Nina Mazar and colleagues illustrates this point.
The participants of their experiment were asked to complete as many exercises as possible
in four minutes. Each question consisted of a list of 12 numbers under 10, all with 2 decimal
places. The participants were required to ind 2 numbers which, added together, came to 10
exactly. Only one combination was possible. Participants were informed that a number of them,
selected at random, would receive 10 dollars for every correct answer. This is a common set-
up, but the researchers made their own addition: before the experiment half of the participants
were required to write down 10 books they had read. The other half had to write down the Ten
Commandments (insofar as they knew them). Half the group were informed in advance that
they would be required to hand in their tasks afterwards to be examined by the researchers.The
other half of the group were required to check their tasks themselves.
For the answers examined, the number of correctly completed questions was three on average.
There was no difference between the group that wrote down books they had read and the group
that listed the Ten Commandments. This evidently had no effect on performance. But what
happened to the participants who were required to state themselves how many questions they
had completed correctly? They were not checked and therefore had every opportunity to cheat.
The participants who had written a list of books on average claimed to have completed just over
four questions, at least a third more, which was clearly cheating. How many did the participants
who had been asked to list the Ten Commandments claim? On average they reported having
completed three tasks, as many as the participants with no opportunity to cheat.
Writing the Ten Commandments primed the participants’ awareness of their own sense of
honesty.This stimulus was so strong that all dishonesty disappeared. A nudge in the direction of
honesty is apparently suficient to get people to be honest, at least in the experimental scenario.
10.TheTen Commandments and fraud: affective stimuli
