Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental Evidence
We explore whether individuals are averse to telling a Pareto white lie—a lie that benefits both themselves and another. We first review and summarize the existing evidence on Pareto white lies. We find that the evidence is relatively limited and varied in its conclusions. We then present new experi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Games |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/12/1/1 |
| _version_ | 1818062636289359872 |
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| author | Edward Cartwright Lian Xue Charlotte Brown |
| author_facet | Edward Cartwright Lian Xue Charlotte Brown |
| author_sort | Edward Cartwright |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We explore whether individuals are averse to telling a Pareto white lie—a lie that benefits both themselves and another. We first review and summarize the existing evidence on Pareto white lies. We find that the evidence is relatively limited and varied in its conclusions. We then present new experimental results obtained using a coin-tossing experiment. Results are provided for both the UK and China. We find evidence of willingness to tell a partial lie (i.e., inflating reports slightly) and high levels of aversion to telling a Pareto white lie that would maximize payoffs. We also find no significant difference between willingness to tell a Pareto white lie and a selfish black lie—a lie that harms another. We find marginal evidence of more lying in China than the UK, but the overall results in the UK and China are very similar. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T14:07:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-448ad1bedc8c470eb9da2c12bd747ca8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4336 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T14:07:21Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Games |
| spelling | doaj.art-448ad1bedc8c470eb9da2c12bd747ca82022-12-22T01:45:36ZengMDPI AGGames2073-43362020-12-01121110.3390/g12010001Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental EvidenceEdward Cartwright0Lian Xue1Charlotte Brown2Department of Economics and Marketing, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UKEconomics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, ChinaSchool of Economics, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, UKWe explore whether individuals are averse to telling a Pareto white lie—a lie that benefits both themselves and another. We first review and summarize the existing evidence on Pareto white lies. We find that the evidence is relatively limited and varied in its conclusions. We then present new experimental results obtained using a coin-tossing experiment. Results are provided for both the UK and China. We find evidence of willingness to tell a partial lie (i.e., inflating reports slightly) and high levels of aversion to telling a Pareto white lie that would maximize payoffs. We also find no significant difference between willingness to tell a Pareto white lie and a selfish black lie—a lie that harms another. We find marginal evidence of more lying in China than the UK, but the overall results in the UK and China are very similar.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/12/1/1lie aversiondishonestyPareto white lieselfish liealtruistic lie |
| spellingShingle | Edward Cartwright Lian Xue Charlotte Brown Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental Evidence Games lie aversion dishonesty Pareto white lie selfish lie altruistic lie |
| title | Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental Evidence |
| title_full | Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental Evidence |
| title_fullStr | Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental Evidence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental Evidence |
| title_short | Are People Willing to Tell Pareto White Lies? A Review and New Experimental Evidence |
| title_sort | are people willing to tell pareto white lies a review and new experimental evidence |
| topic | lie aversion dishonesty Pareto white lie selfish lie altruistic lie |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/12/1/1 |
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