Cheating, emotions, and rationality: an experiment on tax evasion
通过逃税实验，测量皮肤电反应和自我报告的情绪，发现预期情绪强度与逃税决策正相关，公开曝光风险抑制逃税而罚款金额反而鼓励逃税，表明审计政策应强化情绪维度以促进合规。
Abstract The economics-of-crime approach usually ignores the emotional cost and benefit of cheating. In this paper, we investigate the relationships between emotions, deception, and rational decision-making by means of an experiment on tax evasion. Emotions are measured by skin conductance responses and self-reports. We show that the intensity of anticipated and anticipatory emotions before reporting income positively correlates with both the decision to cheat and the proportion of evaded income. The experienced emotional arousal after an audit increases with the monetary sanctions and the arousal is even stronger when the evader's picture is publicly displayed. We also find that the risk of a public exposure of deception deters evasion whereas the amount of fines encourages evasion. These results suggest that an audit policy that strengthens the emotional dimension of cheating favors compliance.